One More Chance
by cartoon moomba
Summary: She loved the game to bits, really, but when getting hit by a car and getting sent over there as a second chance years before the plotline, she would much rather stay home away from the danger. REWRITE UP
1. Tick Tock, We'll Go Around the Clock

**A/N: **Well! This is my first Final Fantasy story ever, so I'm still trying to understand the characters and their attitudes and all… I hope you enjoy, please.  
Note: If you are going to Flame, please do it literately and gives some criticism on what I could do to improve.

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts

**Chapter One**  
Tick Tock, We'll Go Around the Clock  
…and her world just fell apart

_You know, there are sometimes days when you want your Math teacher to disappear through the floor to who-knows-where, the rain outside to stop falling down and for the sun to shine through with no care in the world, and for the little missing piece in your chair that's making it unbalanced to repair itself. There are days when you want school to never start in the first place to let you sleep in your dream wonderland, your bed to suddenly appear beneath you, and a fire to crackle warmly as you read a book by it, relishing the heat. _

_This was one of those days – for me, at least. Even though school had only been going for two hours at most and the sun had broken through to shine weakly down in relief, there was nothing more I wanted than to be home sitting on my white fluffy carpet in the messy living room, playing some video game or watching TV._

_I think that's why I wasn't expecting anything to happen. I mean, sure, it was my birthday, but all of my friends were on class field trips and the ones who were present had projects to finish up. It was the end of the school year with only a week or so left until summer came, and I'm pretty sure I had a science project to complete for the next day… but I can't remember. It all seems insignificant now._

_I was walking home a few hours later, rain pouring down onto my umbrella loudly as I jumped over puddles that were scattered everywhere you looked. My mom was making my favourite chocolate chip cookies and there was ice-cream cake in the fridge to celebrate my birthday, so I was eager to get home. If there is one thing you want to know about my family, it's that I adore them to death. Of course, they were quite embarrassing at times, but I could live it through – in truth, I would not trade them for the world. _

_My mom is the kind who you could rant to for hours straight only to realize it was a stupid thing, but she'd give you a smile and a hug to make it all better anyways. She works as a biologist, so she's constantly exploring some wildlife or plant life somewhere. I don't get to see her much, but she manages to make time for my father and me. I am an only child, and pretty glad for it. _

_My father, on the other hand, is as strict as you can get. Although his ability to tell great stories and cheer you up even when you think you don't require it makes up for it. He works as an accountant at some bank I visited once or twice a long time ago, and is home a lot more than my mom._

_They are both wonderful._

_The other thing that I love other than the rest of my family and friends are my games. I used to have a ton of computer and board games stacked shelves upon shelves in my closet. But a few years back, my dad introduced me to video games, which was quite a surprise for me – I've never thought of him as that kind of person. He played mostly racing games that I lost interest in soon after, so I asked for a Playstation 2 for Christmas and then bought a game called 'Kingdom Hearts' that came out a few years earlier – about one or two, I think._

_I was eleven at the time and discovered my passion for roleplaying games. _

_After playing all games that I could find that sounded interesting, I decided to get to the root of Kingdom Hearts and discovered the Final Fantasy series. By the time, I was older, and managed to snag myself three of their games – Final Fantasy X, X-2, and XII. I did not particularly enjoy the last two, but replayed Final Fantasy X again and again. Kingdom Hearts 2 was out at the time as well, so I bought it and played._

_Then a friend of mine who was sadly moving offered me a game called Final Fantasy VIII, knowing I was a fan. I shrugged and accepted, but put off playing it due to my school work. Finally, a few months later, weeks before my birthday, I dug it up and put it into my beloved PS2's hard-drive. _

_It still ranks number two after Final Fantasy X on my 'Favourites' list, even after playing both of them over and over. I now know a lot about the game, and though I do not understand the whole plot line of the game, I still love it to bits. _

_…_

_…The roads were slippery and in danger of being flooded on the day I was crossing the road, an imaginary smell of cookies in my mind and Final Fantasy VIII before my eyes, so I don't actually blame anybody fully for what happened. The only thing I wish for, though, is the chance to see my parents and friends again… to say good-bye, I guess._

_Oddly enough, my whole mind was focused so clearly on my game that I was starting to feel dizzy from the pressure – as if someone was pushing it into my mind, so determined for me to absorb it – and I could see the car skidding dangerously close to me, the sound of its breaks squealing loudly only to fail, and the pain that blossomed from my side, only to spread throughout my whole body as I let out a pained cry, the only sound being able to hear now echoing the steady rain beats of the windshield in my mind. _

_I think… I think it was the last sound I heard as my eyes closed, the red and black still swirling in my eyesight, forming taunting, odd shapes._

_Then there was nothing. _

_  
I don't know where I was or how I came to be there, to be lying on my backside that was sprawled on cold pavement only seconds before, staring openly into darkness billowing in a veil around me. There was no light, no warmth, and no movement… only a searing cold and a feeling of eerie calmness._

_ Then a door appears. A white, richly decorated door that reminds me of Kingdom Hearts and I attempt to turn and swim towards it, failing the first few times. Finally, I manage to turn the golden doorknob silently and enter the room beyond. There are… clocks. So many clocks, all ticking, on the floor on the walls on the ceiling… cuckoo clocks, digital, carved ones… there is every type of clock in here!_

_Then the noise comes. Oh, the noise. It's so terribly loud, the ticking echoing in my mind… I recall putting my hands to my ears to block it, but it fails, and the sound only gets louder and louder and louder…_

_Faces. There were faces flashing in my mind's eye. Faces, voice, sceneries… but they went by so fast! I can't recognize them… wait, there's a woman with a captivating face wearing an exotic dress, a man with brown hair in a black jacket facing away from me. There's a girl in a yellow dress – she's bouncing up and down, but I can't see her face. There's a tall figure in a cowboy costume, and a woman with a whip clutched tightly in her hands. A boy with a tattoo on his face throwing punches at the thin air, and a girl with black hair and a blue knitted top._

_Blood. There's lots of blood and screaming— I can't take it anymore, I have to get out – out, out out._

_It stopped. It stopped because I suddenly knew who they were. It stopped because I suddenly knew who they were and did not want to believe it._

_The voices stopped. The clocks stopped. My breath stopped in my chest. Was it… was it because I understood, or was it because of the boy? Was it because of the boy with black hair and small glasses and a charming smile on his face as he stood across from me holding his hand out for me to take? _

_I could see his face. I could see his face clearly enough to notice the pitying and mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes and his mouth forming a word._

Later.

_Without thinking, I took the one step needed forward and clasped his cold hand in my warm ones as the boy not a year older than me disappeared with a smile. _

_I was falling. Falling, speeding, whirling… down to where? To nowhere?_

---

---

I awake to find myself with a headache and staring at lights. Annoyingly bright lights, might I add. I am lying in a bed, that is obvious enough. There is a small green cabinet beside it and a breeze is above me, coming from what I guess is a small window. There are white walls, a white floor, a white ceiling and a white door.

My stomach lurched. I was in a hospital.

"Yes, yes, she will be fine, don't worry about it." The voice startled me as it echoed from the room beyond the door, and I clutched the bedsheets tighter. "She should be awakening soon… no, I still haven't found a record of her… Of course. Good-bye." There's a sound of a phone clicking into place and the doorknob turns a few seconds later as a middle-aged woman comes in with a clipboard in hand, her black hair tied in a messy bun on top of her head.

My stomach lurches again, but this time in wary recognition. Where have I seen her before?

She hasn't noticed me watching her, if her mumbles are anything to go by. The words "operation", "stitches", and "blood loss" are too much for me to bear and I let out a small whimper, snapping the doctor's attention from her clipboard to me and she hurries over, quickly checking over the machines I've just noticed are connected to me.

_…What happened?_

"You are finally awake, dear. How are you feeling?" She finally asks in a motherly tone a few seconds later, handing me a glass of water to drink. I do so gladly and attempt to shrug, but wince as pain sears up my side.

The woman shakes her head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. There are still injuries, and Hyne knows how you managed to survive…" I blink in confusion to her as she bats some of my hair away from my eyes.

"Sur…vive?" I murmur, staring at her blankly. She sighs and pats my arm under the sheets reassuringly.

"The building, love. It's a blessing that some of our students managed to get you out just as it collapsed." I stare at her again, and I have a feeling my face is paling by the second. The doctor winces slightly as she notices.

"I'm Doctor Kadowaki," she offers, and something in my brain clicks.

_School._

_Home._

"Do you remember your name?" Dr. Kadowaki asks hastily, and I slightly nod, my eyesight focusing and un-focusing slightly.

_Game._

"Where am I?" I question suddenly, ignoring my burning throat. She gives me a slightly strange look but answers nonetheless.

"You're in Balamb Garden's Infirmary." She pauses as my eyes widen. "Do… you remember where you're from? It can't be Balamb… nobody recognized you there when we asked around… dear, are you alright?"

_School. Home. Game. Car. Game. Game?_

"…No," I choke, still sorting through my thoughts and hoping she would buy it. It appears she does, because her eyes widen and she lets out a small 'oh my'.

"I'll call Headmaster Cid here. Maybe he'll figure something out…" She tells me and hurries out the door. Numbly, I nod, slowly feeling myself fall back into unconsciousness.

_School. Home. Game. Car. Game. __**Game.**_

_Balamb. _

_Balamb._

_Balamb Garden._

Realization finally hits me and my breath catches in my throat. _I'm Kira Lanning, _my voice echoes loudly in my mind. _I'm Kira Lanning. I'm not a day over than thirteen years. I managed to get run over by a car, and I've suddenly found myself in a video game. _

The last thing I manage to see is a strangely young-looking Cid Kramer enter my room.

---

---

You know, for someone who has just found herself in a video game and possible _dead _in her real world, I take this quite well. …I'll probably throw a fit later, though.

I wake up a few hours later feeling a little better, and take some time to sort through what has happened.

Both Headmaster Cid and Doctor Kadowaki looked younger than I would imagine, so it's possible that I'm a few years before the actual plotline happens. But then, why am I here? Who's the guy I saw, and when I can I see him again? What did he mean by 'later'? Will he explain everything to me?

…And who the hell is the person staring at me through the crack in the doorway?

I raise an eyebrow at the boy, who's face sheepishly disappears only to enter fully into my room, scratching the back of his head. He has a bandage around his forehead, and what seems to be a healing black eye.

"So, you're the unlucky kid who was brought here?" He questions, peering at me in what I deem a rude way. I narrow my eyes.

"And who are you?" I question as loud as I can, taking in his blond hair, baggy pants, blue t-shirt and mocking smirk. He looks to be my age as well, but you never know.

His smirk widens and he crosses his arms. "Seifer Almasy," he introduces, watching as I take in his appearance critically.

_Waaaiiit a sec. Seifer? This is Seifer? _I silently compare the Seifer I've seen in the game and the kid standing before me. Now that I think about it, they do look quite familiar…

_Oh my._

I manage to choke back my laughter, instead trying to smile slightly. "I'm Kira." I pause slightly. "…Do you need something?" He shakes his head and we just stare at each other in a 'what-now?' way, which is thankfully interrupted by Dr. Kadowaki, who comes bursting into the room.

"Seifer!" She all but yells and I can see him wince. "What did I tell you about disturbing my patient?" She rants on for a few more minutes and I watch in amusement as she chews him out. To think, this guy is gonna be…

He coughs suddenly and points a finger to me, which stops the woman effectively. "Oh!" She cries and pushes Seifer out the door, who gives me one last look and a smirk before the door clicks shut behind him. I have a feeling I'll actually like him…

"Well now," Dr. Kadowaki announces as she walks over to me and sits at a nearby stool. "How are you feeling?" She asks to which I shrug, thankfully with no searing pain this time.

"As if I've just been run over by a car," I answer half-truthfully, to which she smiles slightly and shakes her head.

"You should be recovering soon. I'd say a few weeks. You'll be back on your feet in no time!" She encourages, but otherwise stays silent as I stare blankly at the wall across from me.

"Do you…still not remember where you're from?" She asks, and I shrug again. Sighing, Dr. Kadowaki pats my arm in the way that reminds me of my mother.

"You are oddly calm about it," she remarks, and I smile sheepishly.

"It's probably just shock," I suggest, and she gives me a look. "I'm pretty sure it'll hit me full-force sooner or later." Shaking her head, she straightens my bedsheets and walks to leave the room. "I'll check up on you in a few hours. Just call if you need anything, alright? Oh, and don't try to move."

I nod and watch as leaves, then quickly try to wiggle my head to look at the window above me. It's getting darker, so it must be nearing nighttime, right?

Right.

My last coherent thought before I fall into a dreamless sleep is that I should probably get to know some people here, seeing as I'll probably be staying here for a while.

_As in four years or so while._ I roll my eyes. _Wonderful. _

Then it's darkness again.

* * *

a/n: okay… I'm not exactly sure if that was good or not, but I am still trying to get the hang of the characters… please notify if you have any concerns. I'll be putting more description on Kira and her situation in the next chapter, which should be coming soon! 

Otherwise, review please!


	2. Hospitals Are Wonderful Places

**A/N: **Chapter Two is here. Please enjoy it and notify me of any mistakes. As a side-note, I'll be switching Points of View once in a while in the future.

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts

**Chapter Two**  
Hospitals Are Wonderful Places To Make Friends  
…and the pieces fitted in

**Balamb Garden Dormitories, Two Years Later**

I tugged uncomfortably at the incredibly short Garden uniform skirt I was required to wear, hoping it would magically make itself longer. Cursing the school for making females wear it, I gave up and instead chose to stare at the mirror.

It was exactly two years after I came here – meaning, it was my birthday. I was turning fifteen.

Somehow, it didn't feel all that good. I mean, I'm enjoying all of this and all, but… I want to see my home again, you know? To be able to see my parents and tell that I'm okay and not lying in a coma or even dead, attend my normal school again and be able to laugh with my friends over something completely idiotic.

Hell, I even kind of want to finish that science project that was I was working on so long ago.

"I've changed, haven't I?" My voice echoed around my room as I continued to examine myself in the bathroom mirror. What used to be light brown hair had grown past my shoulders and down to my back, turning a dark shade of blond in the progress, strands of brown still visible here and there. Whereas I had worn colored contacts back home, my natural grey eyes stared back at me sadly.

"Hi mom, hi dad." I started for some unknown reason, feeling immensely guilty all of a sudden. "How are you doing? I'm fine. A bit confused over all of this still, but I'm happy here…" I smiled, continuing what I recognized as to be my 'traditional speech' of a sort that I did on almost every holiday.

"You'll be happy that I've grown. Not only in personality, but in height, as well. I think I'm as tall as you now, mom… I think it would be, what, five feet now? You'll be happy to know that, dad, I'll bet. You always said I would stay short for my whole life." I laughed suddenly, imagining my parents' faces as they listened.

"I have friends here, too! The very first person I've met here my age, now that I think about it, is this guy called Seifer… he's a huge prick. He's rude, sarcastic, and gets on my nerves." I giggled at my description of him – but it was true. "Although he can be a great friend when you want him to be. He showed me around Garden, too…"

**---**

_Slowly, I opened my eyes at the impatient knocking at the hospital door, managing to send a sleepy glare to it. Grudgingly, I ran a hand through my hair and turned to look at the person who entered, shutting the door behind him._

_"You again?" I scowled at the blond teenager, sitting up against my pillows. It was only a few days after I had first met him, and I truthfully didn't expect him to come see me again. _

_"You could have at least knocked," I grumbled to him, but raised my eyes to his never-the-less. "What do you want?"_

_Seifer shrugged and settled himself on the stool beside my bed. "Kadowaki says you'll be up and walking in a few days." He raised an eyebrow as I snorted. _

_"Sure, if this pain's gonna go away any time soon," I retorted sarcastically, still mad at being awakened so early. "I think she's just being wistful." It was Seifer's turn to snort._

_"I was thinking of giving you a tour of Garden when you were better," he commented casually after a pause. "You know, get you used to your surroundings. Who knows how long you'll be staying here."_

_I stared openly at him. "Uh, why? It's not like I'll actually enroll—"_

_"Actually," he interrupted me, "I heard the Headmaster discussing you with the doctor. He's thinking about asking you to be a student here if you have nowhere to go, believe it or not."_

_My mouth opened and closed for a few seconds as I ran over this new information in my head. "…You serious?" I finally inquired, gaping at him. Seifer smirked, and I hooted loudly, pumping a fist in the air._

_"Awesome!" I cried, massaging the stitch that appeared. "But wait. I don't know how to fight at all. Wouldn't that be a problem?" He shrugged and leaned back on the chair._

_"Too bad for you then, huh?" He said off-handedly. My eye twitched and I had the urge to grab the pillow and hurl it at him. _

_"Didn't you offer to give me a tour of Garden a few seconds earlier?" I growled, finding myself surprised at having him grind my nerves so much. The last person to do so was a guy I knew in my homeroom class, and we used to bicker at each other all the time…_

_If he saw the wince that crossed my face, he ignored it, preferring to answer my question. "Well, it's the job of the disciplinary committee, isn't it?" He smirked. "Of course, if you don't want us to…"_

_Of course, I knew the base structure of Balamb Garden, but I rolled my eyes and grinned anyways. "Of course I do! But who's 'us'?" _

_Seifer shrugged. "These two named Fuujin and Raijin." He offered no other explanation on them, so we stayed silent. That is, until…_

_"Seifer Almasy!" Dr. Kadowaki banged open the door again, glaring fully at the blond boy. Said student winced and turned to look at the doctor, attempting to look innocent._

_"I was wondering how you got here," I muttered to him out of the corner of my mouth, to which he just smirked the ever-annoying smirk of his and stood up, edging towards the door. _

_"Dr. Kadowaki! How wonderful to see you!"_

---

I paused for a few seconds, recalling the event. "You know, dad, I don't think you'll like him that much…" I mumbled, but shook my head and continued. "Anyways. He has these two friends, Fuujin and Raijin. Fuujin has this tendency to practically yell when speaking to be heard over the two, and Raijin adds a 'ya know' to almost every sentence. But they're cool, all in all."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, wondering how long I had until classes started.

"Then there's the second person I met here. His name is Zell, and it's a rather funny story…"

---

_Peeking from the doorframe, I quickly scanned the perimeter of the room. _

_No one._

_Mentally cheering for the super stealth skills I had, I crept out from my little room to which I had been forced to stay in for a week and a half now, glad for the clothes Dr. Kadowaki let me change into instead of the hospital gown. It was nothing really, just grey sweatpants, some fluffy socks and a white t-shirt with the Balamb Garden logo on it. _

_"And where do you think you're going, young man?" The voice surprised me enough to jump behind one of the curtains, but the mention of 'young man' assured me that I was safe – for now, at least. _

_Dr. Kadowaki emerged from the room adjoined to the one I was supposed to be in, a boy with spiky blond hair following sheepishly behind her. _

_I immediately recognized him as Zell. Younger, yes, but still with the same tattoo on the side of his face and the same weird style of hair._

_And still the same addiction for hot dogs, it seemed, by the way he was holding his stomach._

_"Now, Mr. Dincht, I suggest you take one of these every day for the next three days or so…" Dr. Kadowaki continued, oblivious to my presence as she searched her drawers for a medicine of some kind. Sighing, she turned back to the boy empty-handed. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to check in the back for the pills. Wait here for a few minutes."_

_A__s soon as she left the room, I stepped out from behind the curtain, watching as Zell started to sneak towards the door. _

_"You know, I wouldn't do that if I were you. She'd just drag you back here anyways," I commented off-handedly, watching in amusement as the future SeeD jumped into the air, whirling around to face me._

_"…Who're you?" He asked after a few seconds, taking in my appearance. He smiled slightly, apparently getting a slight of idea as to why I was in hiding. "And shouldn't you take your own advice?"_

_I winced and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, trying to come up with a good reason. "I, uh, have better stealth skills than you. So ha." I stuck out my tongue childishly, but shook it off. _

_Deciding to try making friends with him because I thought he was a rather cool character in the game itself, I introduced myself. "Hiya. I'm Kira. And you are you?" I stuck my hand out and he shook it slightly awkwardly, grinning._

_"Zell Dincht, future hand-to-hand master!" He gloated, but it suddenly stopped as footsteps echoed across from the other room. Wildly searching for an escape of some kind, he groaned weakly, accepting defeat as the figure of Dr. Kadowaki appeared from a little room at the back I've never noticed before. _

_Smiling slightly at the sight before her for a few seconds, she shook her head and sighed. "Now, Miss Lanning, I am sure you cannot wait until you get out of here—" I coughed slightly in agreement, but shut up after a small glare. "—but I would prefer you have a final check-up to make sure you are completely healed." She pointed towards the door leading to my room and I laughed nervously before walking towards it, waving to Zell who gave a two-finger salute in return before returning to the dreaded bed._

_"Now, Mr. Dincht, if you are so eager to get out of here, I suggest you lay off the hotdogs…"_

_I laughed. _

---

"…He's a really great guy, if not with some strange obsessions. He can act like a mother-hen sometimes though, but he's awesome never-the-less…Now, um, who should I talk about next?"

I tapped my finger in thought for a few seconds before smiling again. "There is, of course, Quistis. We're not the best of friends, but we can talk easily with each other… she's pretty much one of my only female friends." I coughed. "Quistis is one of those people who has a goal in life and she'll follow it no matter what… right now, she wants to be an instructor here. I actually met her because of that…"

---

_Two more days._

_Two more days._

_Two more days._

_"Two more days," I muttered, flipping through some random magazine I found lying around in the main medical office. "Two more days, and I'll be free from here… but to where?" I sighed, putting it down and choosing to stare blankly at the door, willing it to open. _

_Strangely enough, it did._

_In came a girl who looked one or two years older than me, wearing the standard Garden uniform with bright orangish-blond hair hanging down to her shoulder blades, side bangs tucked behind her ears and delicate glasses on her nose._

_"Hi there!" She greeted, noticing me staring at her. Nervously, she fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "How are you feeling?"_

_I blinked owlishly at her, wondering how she knew I was here. "Uhm, I'm okay, thank you?" I responded uncertainly, cocking my head to the side. She looked familiar._

_"Not to be rude or anything, but have we met before?" I asked subconsciously, and the girl shook her head in answer and smiled brightly._

_"No, but almost the whole school knows of the girl in the infirmary… it was a big topic after you were brought in." _

_Okay… not the answer I was expecting, but that might explain as to why she is here. But that means I'm the school's gossip topic… wonderful. "Might I ask why you're here, though?" _

_The girl nodded and her smile even seemed to get brighter. "Right! Of course!" …And in came a whole load of books. Thick books. Thick, big books. Thick, big books with fancy titles._

_She must have noticed me gaping uncertainly at the pile, so she placed them beside me on the table. "I heard that you were going to be enrolled here, so I thought I might help you a little with the studies…" She smiled uncertainly. "I want to be a professor here, you see, so I thought I could start helping."_

_I was still staring at the school objects, but my head snapped up at the words. "Heh, thanks, I suppose. I think they'll prove to be useful." I smiled and held out my hand. "I'm Kira."_

_The blond – there sure are a lot of blonds here – shook my hand. "I'm Quistis Trepe. Pleasure to meet you."_

---

"And you know what? Those books really helped! Of course, most of them were Garden rules, but some were on the history, and there was even one on Guardian Forces and Magic!" I sighed and smiled at my reflection, watching as it smiled back. "I still need to find myself a Guardian Force, now that I think about it… I'm pretty sure the school might have some, but I'm not completely certain."

I checked the clock hanging inside my room. Good, there was still half an hour, and it only took ten minutes to get to my homeroom class on the second floor. Turning back to the mirror, I continued.

"Then there's this Squall guy. I'm… not that friendly with him, but we get along most of the time. Of course, it's rather easy, cause he doesn't talk much, but…" I cracked a smile as I thought about the 'main character'. "I… don't really want to get into meeting him, but let's just say it wasn't that friendly, because he's rivals with Seifer, so…"

---

_"…And here we have the cafeteria. The hotdogs there are awful, so be sure to steer clear of them…"_

_I bit back an amused smile as we entered the spacious cafeteria of Balamb Garden, taking in the sights of students eating peacefully at tables or ordering food. I took a mental note of the fact that most platters seemed to house hot dogs._

_"Well, look who's here."_

_I snapped out of my thoughts at the change of tone in my guide's voice, following his eyes to where a figure was sitting by himself, reading a book._

_A brunette figure. A brunette figure with black pants and a white t-shirt. A brunette figure with black pants and a white t-shirt with a gunblade by his side. _

_"Oh, no…" I murmured, which thankfully went unnoticed by Seifer, who was already stomping towards the boy I knew was undoubtedly Squall Leonheart – otherwise known as his rival. _

_Squall raised his eyes slowly from his book to the taunting ones of his rival, staring back into them boringly. "Do you need something?" He questioned coldly, attention quickly flickering towards me before returning to the blond boy. _

_Seifer shook his head and crossed his arms, leaning backwards slightly. "Just wondering if you're still up for the training session later today and not chickening out."_

_A quiet sigh was heard from Squall as he returned to his book. "Whatever."_

_Seifer laughed and turned back to me, sticking a finger backwards at the silent thirteen-year-old. "And that's someone you don't want to hang out with," he announced loudly, to which I just rolled my eyes in a very bad habit and bit back a smart-ass comment – after all, he was my ticket to getting to know Garden, and this place was a lot larger than they showed it in the game._

_"Right," I drawled under my breath, achieving slight eye connection with the brunette who was watching us and shrugged, following Seifer back out towards the halls._

---

"He's not that great, but he can be a huge help when he wants to be. His quiet attitude is something you might want to enjoy after hanging out with Seifer and his crew…" I finished the rather short explanation on the gunblade wielder with a shrug.

"There are a lot of people who I'm acquainted with, such as my roommate, Karen, but those three are quite like my friends back home..." I bit back a sigh. "I miss them very much, you know? Not that I'm not enjoying this, but there are times when I'd much rather be playing pranks on my teachers than killing human-eating plants—"

I bit off, suddenly remembering something important. "That's right! I don't think I actually mentioned this before, but I'm now an official student of Balamb Garden as of two years ago! The Headmaster offered me the chance to join this school after I got out when they found I had nowhere to go. And I haven't said this yet, but since I needed a weapon, I got to try out some… and, well, I am now a proud owner of two rather finely-made pistols and able to knock a person out if I wanted to." I laughed nervously and rubbed the back of my head. "Never thought your daughter would be able to kill someone, huh? To be truthful, I actually can't… I don't have the will to kill an actual person yet, and I'm glad for that." Checking the time and finding that I had less time than I had hoped, I decided to finish up.

"I'm also training with a sword, and it's coming along pretty well so I might master it in a few years…My teacher says that I have a real knack for it! Something surprising, huh?... Well, I guess that's it. I love you guys, mom, dad."

Waving at the mirror and feeling slightly foolish for doing so, I walk out of the washroom and into my little bedroom, only to stop in my tracks.

"I think you'll be happy to know that they miss you very much and still celebrate your birthdays."

Instinctively reaching my hands for my pistols, I cursed as I found them missing from their holsters. Deciding to face whoever it was, I turned slowly to my bed, where the person in question was sitting.

A kid.

Oh, no. Upon closer inspection, said kid has black hair, small glasses, blue eyes and a charming smile.

My hands drop to my side as my mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water for a few seconds before a coherent thought makes itself into my mind.

"YOU!" I all but yell the word, prodding my finger at him for emphasis. The kid has the audacity to raise an eyebrow in amusement. "You!" I repeat again, this time quieter. "You! Clocks! Car! Game!" Shaking my head, I attempt to make a full sentence.

"Who the hell are you and what did you do to make me get here?"

The kid smiles in mock pity. "My, and here I thought I was doing you a favour." He drawles, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on the hem of his black shirt.

"Favour?" I growl. "What kind of favour? All I know is that somehow I'm in a video game!" …I'm so glad my roommate has early classes right now.

"You were going to die." He stated blankly, looking at me calmly and crossing his arms, putting his glasses back into place. "The fact that I saved your life, in my eyes, is quite a big favor."

Die? Wait a sec – I was really in danger of… dying? Sure, it crossed my mind that I was probably dead in my own world, but hearing somebody actually say it?

"…Who are you?"

The kid smiles and sticks out his hand for me to shake, which I do so warily. "I'm the only reason you're here. I was known as your Playstation 2, but now I am merely an essence and prefer to be called Eriol."

This is the part where I stare at him and blink like an owl.

"Come again?" I croak, settling myself on the table across of my bed. Eriol coughs into his hand in what seems to be amusement but repeats himself anyways.

"I found it quite odd that your last thoughts were of a video game," he adds in, "So I decided to bring you here. You know, just to see what would happen if you suddenly appeared at Garden. At the same time, I found that there was a building in that Balamb town collapsing and a girl around your age was in danger of dying, so I just switched you in and helped you live. Nothing extraordinary."

I try to understand all of this, nodding absently to myself every few seconds. "So you brought me here because you were curious." I finally state, ignoring the last bit and not wanting to know what happened to the other girl. Eriol shrugs in agreement.

"Pretty much. You see, I don't really care as to what happens to you – us essences usually don't. It's merely curiosity that drives us on."

My eye twitched. "Thanks, I guess. But what are you doing here now?"

He immediately sobered up. "Your time has come, I'm afraid." He announces gravely. "You are well aware of what shall be happening in the near future, are you not?" I nod, slightly confused at the way his speech style changed in the time span of two seconds and a random thought of how old he is crossing my mind.

"You have affected the lives of the characters here," He continues, eyes trailing to look lazily out my room window. "You will have no choice but to accompany them on their journey. I will help along the way, but you must take your life into your hands and move on." I feel a pang of guilt inside of me, and wonder if he heard my one-sided conversation.

"There will be times when your life is near death, times when you do not know what to do, times when you will want to tell everything you know, and times when you want nothing more than to be home. But… I am sorry to say that it is not possible. To the people you have known before, you have been dead for two years now, in an accident. There is no way for you to return."

I stare out the window with him, eyes closing slightly in sadness. "Oh," I murmur, his words squishing whatever hope I had left of going home.

"I'll…" the boy paused in uncertainty. "I'll try to explain everything later, when the time is right." He bowed his head slightly, and then he was gone.

Then the bell rang and the spell was broken.

"Oh, shit!" I cried, realizing that classes have started and I needed to be on the second floor and not in my room. Grabbing some of my books that were required for the classes that were scheduled for today, I rushed out of the room.

Only to bump into someone and send us both sprawling to the floor.

Groaning, I got to my feet and held out a hand to the petite brunette on the floor in front of me, helping her up.

"Are you okay? I'm so, so sorry," I hurriedly said, ignoring the feeling in my stomach telling me that this was another person I was supposed to recognize.

The brunette shook her head. "It's alright, I'm fine." Picking up some of the books that fell near her feet, she smiled and handed them to me, smoothing down her skirt as I took them gratefully.

"Um, do you happen to know where the library is?" The girl asked, watching as I picked up my _Study of Magics_ book off the floor, balancing them between my hands. I nodded, taking in her appearance casually.

"It's the first exit to the right of the elevator," I informed her. White skirt, blue top, green shawl. Why does she look so familiar?

The girl nodded her head. "Thank you so much! Oh, I didn't even get your name."

I smiled at her, secretly eager to get going. "I'm Kira. You are?"

"I'm Ellone. It's nice to meet you." She bowed slightly to me and I nodded back to her, mind still focused on the scolding I was going to get.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Ellone, but I'm kinda in a hurry, so…"

"Oh, right! Sorry about that!" She apologized, but I just gave a shrug and waved slightly with my hand from on top of my books before hurrying down the hallway.

I didn't hear the mumbled words from Ellone and didn't recognize who I had just met until lunch time.

**"You aura's different. Why?"**

* * *

a/n: Well, done this one. Please review and wait patiently until the next chapter. 


	3. Never Never Never Land

**a/n: **Chapter Three, the latest chapter, is here. But that's only because I refuse to go to sleep so my plot bunnies of doom won't run away while I'm off in never never never land.

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts

**Chapter Three**  
Never Never Never Land Where Dreams Are Still Intact  
…and the pieces shook with tremors

**Balamb Garden, Two Years Later ( beginning of normal story line )**

There are some people who have to grow up and let go of their pasts. There are some people who know that and accept it, and there are some people who know it and refuse it. Growing up means letting go, and you have to learn to embrace it.

Those were the words my mom told me the first time I had a big fight with one of my friends; big enough for us to never talk again. I remember coming home from school, my little seven-year-old petite frame shaking, sobbing into her shoulder as she murmured soothing words to my ears.

She said that part of growing up was learning to let go but I said I didn't want to let go and she said that I'll learn when I'm older.

But that meant growing up and she knew it. She knew that eventually, just as she had done, my little fairies and palaces would fall away without me noticing.

The ironic fact is that I have noticed. Quite clearly.

I think it began after I found myself at Garden, moaning about life being unfair in hospital beds then following Seifer around Garden as he acted as my tour guide. After realizing where I was, I had gone into shock – different kind of shock. Different enough to make me lock myself in my new room and cry for days and days.

I knew then a piece of my childhood fell away, because I knew for certain I would never be able to return to it.

But I moved on. I moved on and tried to melt into the daily lifestyle of Garden, that resembled my old school so much I wanted to go in a corner and cry but I knew that my old school would have never taught us how to use magic or kill monsters sizes bigger than you. I knew that at my old school, I would have never met the friends I made at Garden because there weren't people who were specialists at hand-to-hand combat, people who could literally whip you into place, or people with vengeances and swords with built in guns that could slay you with one hit.

So I made friends and managed to move on somehow but a part of me was destroyed and the other refused to let go.

The second piece fell away when the boy Eriol appeared in my life.

He was rude and blunt and I wanted him to go and to let me live on as I had but he told me – no, in his own way, he ordered me to move on completely and stop my foolish little acts that consisted of me imagined that I would be able to return.

Then he left me on my own and I wanted nothing more than to have him dead in the jaws of some T-Rexaur so I could just pretend to have never heard him.

I admit that I was surprised when my friends recognized signs of something bothering me, even if I thought it wasn't.

_When I entered the classroom and quickly apologized to the instructor, I could feel Seifer's eyes following my every move as I walked calmly to sit beside him, ready to begin the class. I ignored him and he let it go._

_Then at my Magics class I had Zell shooting me worried looks so often I thought everybody in the class had noticed but nobody said anything so I ignored him like I did with Seifer. _

_Quistis nearly approached me at our daily route through the Training Center but I spotted a Grat lounging in the sun so I pointed it out to her and being the perfectionist she is, she killed it and forgot about me for a few minutes. _

_Squall said nothing but raise his eyebrow as I hit my head against my desk muttering about stupid tardiness and girls with brown hair who shouldn't be meeting me and I had a feeling it wasn't about that but he is always quiet so I thankfully had no interruptions from him during Academics._

_"KIRA. PROBLEM."_

_Fuujin was never really the one to be ignored, so I'm thinking that sitting with their group at lunch was not a good idea._

_Raijin shot me a confused look as Seifer nodded, placing his elbows on the table and leaning in towards me. "I've noticed," he commented dryly, watching as I took a bite of my salad and shrugged my shoulders, averting my eyes._

_"I don't know what you're talking about," I stated, only to be cut off by Raijin as he placed his fists on the table with determination, making it shudder slightly under his strength._

_"If something's bothering you, you should tell your friends, ya know?" He voiced, causing Fuujin to give him a slightly approving look before returning to her chocolate mousse. Seifer nodded in agreement, taking a sip of some drink in a can that looked a lot like Pepsi._

_"So spill," he commanded. "What's bothering you? Even Chicken-Wuss could notice it, and he's not the brightest crayon in the box." _

_I shrugged my shoulders again and ignored the rude remark to Zell, learning that no matter how much you chided the blond gunblade wielder, he wouldn't stop the childish name-calling. _

_"Nothing's wrong," I repeated blandly, taking a sip of a milkshake. "You're seeing things."_

_Seifer snorted and leaned back on his chair, putting his hands behind his head in the usual Seifer-like manner. "Come off it, Kira. Everybody knows something's up except you."_

_I scoffed, but after minutes of awaiting silence, I sighed and decide to give in._

_Slightly._

_"I… kind of remembered where I was from." I admitted. Seifer sat up immediately in his chair, his eyes boring into mine in an uncomfortable way._

_"Will you be going back then?" He inquired emotionlessly, averting his eyes to take another drink that was part of his almost non-existent lunch._

_I bit my lip and placed my palms around the cool surface of my own milkshake, relishing in the cold that spread through me. "I kind of… can't go back. It's impossible." I murmured, watching with slight curiosity when what seemed like small relief passed through one of my first friend's eyes before it was replaced by his normal expression, a smirk on his face._

_"Good!" He exclaimed, leaning over to slap me on the back. "Cause we still need you here!"_

_I decided not to question that as Fuujin and Raijin exchanged fleeting looks before nodding in agreement._

I felt more sane, in a manner of speaking, after realizing that I had people who wanted me to stay with them, but the pieces were floating around like shards of sharp glass of a broken, expensive vase that once stood securely on the shelf and you want it to repair repair _repair_ itself so you won't get into trouble from your mother who was particularly fond of the piece of decoration.

A different kind of piece broke off when Fuujin locked Seifer and I in a closet on my sixteenth birthday after our argument, telling us a in a well-hidden amused undertone that we were not coming out until we realized that yes, trips to take down T-Rexaurs by yourself in the middle of the night were foolish and that yes, people actually did that by their own will.

It was… uncomfortable, to say the least. I mean, I knew him for three years then, but he had suddenly quieted down and the space between us being minimal – it was a broom closet, for the love of all things sacred – the air was filled with tension until something inside me snapped and I growled at him to say something to get us the hell out of there.

His glare was heated as he looked at me and hissed.

_"You should stop worrying about the well-being of others and instead look after yourself, especially when the person you are worrying about doesn't need it."_

I was awe-struck at the words, which soon turned to anger, and after yelling my head off at him for five minutes straight turned into confused anguish.

We hadn't spoken the whole three hours that Fuujin left us there and when we got out we hadn't spoken for nearly two months.

We managed to make up in our own, different way, when I offered to go with him to the Training Center when he couldn't find a sparring partner and he did not protest to running when we spotted a T-Rexaur under the shrubbery of the trees.

I still don't know what part of me left that time, but I have a feeling I do not want to know because it would only lead up to the second-to-last piece that sent me spiraling through my new reality and I prefer to not think on it too much for the sake of my sanity.

It was exactly a week before my seventeenth birthday that Raijin came knocking at my door at ten in the night.

_"Yo, Kira, open up!" I groaned, prying myself from the especially interesting book in my lap at the sound of Raijin's voice and the banging on my poor, poor door. Stretching my white sweater's sleeves until they reached the edges of my fingers so I wouldn't be freezing as much in what was supposed to be summer weather, I trotted over and answered the call._

_"What?" I snapped, the frigid air making me into a very grumpy person. Raijin flinched whether from the temperature or from my voice I don't know, but he pointed a finger towards the halls and coughed nervously._

_"Seifer's gone on again on his own, ya know?" He began. "Fuujin and I are worried 'bout him. Though you could maybe talk to him, seeing as how you're two are close and all… ya know?" He finished weakly, rubbing his arms for warmth._

_Groaning and hitting my head lightly against the doorframe, I let out a mumble and turned to look back at the freezing guy in front of me. "Fine. Where is he?" _

_"Training Center."_

_Cursing at his stupidity about going into the Training Center at night again and not really wanting a repeat of what happened last time with his broken arm and leg, I grabbed my two pistols off the desk and deciding against lugging the sword resting against the wall, I slipped into some sneakers and shut the door behind me, running down the hall._

_It must have been about half past ten by the time I arrived at the Training Center due to the Garden Faculty not believing me about heading there, so I hurried inside and breathed in the humid air in slight relief – I should have gone here earlier to warm up. Would have done wonders. _

_Now you see, I'm not really fit for battle right now seeing as that I'm only wearing some random jeans, a pretty white turtleneck and not mention my hair which is all over the place, so I decide to find the bastard as fast as I could so I could get back to my wonderful book._

_Heading left through the mechanic doors that led to a part of the Center, I raise my eyes at the sight. Sure, fallen trees are nothing new, but you know something's wrong when a trail of dead Grats leads deeper into the human-made jungle._

_Sighing, I slowly make my over the monsters, avoiding the acid mixed with their blood, wincing and cursing every few seconds as part of my clothes gets caught in a tree branch or my shoe gets stuck in something Hyne-knows-what._

_"Seifer!" I yell after a few minutes of irritated walking. "Seifer! If you can hear me, get your ass here!" Ignoring the fact that my yells could attract monsters that remind me of dinosaurs from what could only be a faded memory of Jurassic Park, I continue on, finally noticing him battling it out with a Grat by some stone walls at the far end of the center._

_Growling when I know he knows I'm there and know that he knows but ignores me anyways, I take out my guns out of their holsters and shoot the Grat multiple times, effectively ending its life as it falls to the ground, motionless._

_"What did you do that for?" He questions coldly, resting his gunblade against the stone and keeping his face away from me. Stomping my way to him, I cross my arms and scowl at his trench-coat clad back._

_"Fuujin and Raijin are worried about you getting killed out here, so please get your ass back to the Dormitories right now." I declare, watching as his shoulders tense for a few seconds before relaxing again. He picks up his gunblade and starts swishing it at blank air._

_"No." He replies just as coldly, ignoring me again._

_If there is one thing you must know, it's that ignoring me when I'm as grumpy as hell forced out of my bed to look for some idiot is __**not **__a good thing._

_"Damnit!" I snap at him finally, walking closer. "If you are going to be talking to me then at least face me!"_

_He whirls around to face me and I flinch as the blade of his weapon comes dangerously close to my face, but I keep staring and staring and staring—_

_"Shut up," he hisses at me. "Shut up. Just shut up."_

_Oh no. He did not just tell me what I think he said._

_"What the hell is your problem!?" I finally scream at him, taking his cloak by the collar and somehow managing to shake him. "What the hell is your problem!? Those two are bloody worried about you, and you, you, UGH!" I let go of him and stalk a few feet away, fuming and clenching my fists at my sides._

_Why… Why does he kept getting me riled up like this?_

_"You're not fit to be a SeeD," his wry voice reaches my ears and I tense at the words. "You are not fit to be SeeD." _

_I can feel him coming closer until he is standing right behind me. I… I don't know why, but my breath catches in my throat and my fists clench harder, starting to draw blood. _

_"You're weak. You're not strong enough. You should just accept it." Too close. He's too close and he knows it._

_"Why don't you just accept it, Kira? You can never become SeeD."_

_Was… was this his problem? Did he view me as weak? I know I can never be as strong as him, but…_

_"Be quiet, you damned bastard." My voice is quiet even in my own ears, and I can feel him flinch behind me… I don't think I've ever been this angry before. …Why? Why now? "Just be quiet. You… you don't know anything." _

_He chuckles behind me and then he's right as close to me once again and __**personal space bubble needed right now**_

_"What's your dream, Kira?" He suddenly asks, standing so close to me I can feel his breath on my hair. "What's your dream? Are you scared of fighting? I love fighting. I view it that as long as you fight and win, you are one step closer to completing your dream."_

_What is my dream now? I was hoping to get back home, but now…_

_"You are weak. You should accept it." His arms are around my shoulders, pulling me closer against him. "…Let me be your knight and protect you."_

_Knight._

_Knight._

_**"One day, I'll tell you about my ROMANTIC dream!"**_

_Sorceress's Knight. Her knight. Not mine but hers. He's her knight even though I hate it but he's hers and not mine—_

_He's too close._

_He's too damn close and he knows it. My mind is working on its own. _

_"Knight…?" I manage to murmur as he turns me around, forcing me to stare into his eyes and I cock my head in question as he pulls me closer and closer and I don't do anything to stop it and the next thing I know is that his lips are on mine and my hands are around his neck—_

_No. No, no, no. This is wrong. So, so, wrong. No, not in a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-bastard? way but more in a oh-great-hyne-I'm-kissing-my-best-friend-and-enjoying-it one. _

_"Let me be your knight," he murmurs again, pulling away from me, my arms still in a loose grip around him and the next thing I know is that I'm backing away and shaking my head and oh Hyne am I starting to cry?_

_"No," I manage weakly. "No, no, no. This is wrong, so so wrong…" Snaking my hands around myself in hopes of some comfort, I gulp and look into his eyes which are reflecting pain and coldness and rejection._

_"Let… let me think about this, okay? I need time to think this through amongst other things… okay? Let's… let's pretend this never happened for a while, alright? Please?" I know I sound pathetic and my tear-stained face is probably not helping but he nods after a few seconds and with Hyperion in hand leaves the area._

_Leaves me._

_Leaves me alone._

_Leaves me alone with the thoughts of the future._

_"He's her knight," I announce to the empty clearing. "His dream is to be the Sorceress's knight and I hate it, I want to prevent it and… not everybody needs a knight. I don't need a knight."_

That was me crashing to the floor in a weak mental state, repeating the phrase over and over again because I never expected that turn of events. I had wondered about viewing Seifer in _that _way sometimes, and the thing that scares me is that I'm actually okay with it.

I'll ignore it. I'll learn to grow up and to grow up means to let go and to let go means to learn to ignore.

Right?

…Of course not. But I need to ignore this. I need to ignore it for now. I need to forget he ever kissed me and I need to forget I kissed him back and enjoyed it.

There are some people who have to grow up and let go of their pasts. There are some people who know that and accept it, and there are some people who know it and refuse it. Growing up means letting go, and you have to learn to embrace it.

Those were the words of my mother I heard so long ago. Those are now the words that I've decided to go by for now at least. I need to sort through the things happening, and decide what's right and what's wrong.

There can't be a grey line – only white and black. Right and wrong.

"Yo! Kira, you're spacing out on me again!"

I snap out of my thoughts and smile sheepishly at Zell, who's standing in front of me with an amused smile on his face.

"Sorry!" I quickly apologize. "Must have lost myself in my thoughts again." He shrugs and waves good-bye as he rushes down the hall towards his home-room and I turn to enter mine where the students are milling around, some turning to wave at me before returning to their conversations.

My friends will help me along the way. I know they will. I also know that my way is not the best but it's the only thing helping right now so I'll follow it to the end.

"Good morning Seifer!"

My cheery greeting is no different from the others but we both know there's nothing the same between us ever again. It'll probably never be because we crossed the thin line between friends and something more so while balancing uncertainly there we'll have to figure out where to go and learn to get on with our lives.

In a way, growing up also means to learn to not be surprised by things you will know will happen eventually. Just like we know that we'll fall in love some day, kill a human being with our hands, and die as time passes.

So I really shouldn't be feeling the pang of surprise and sadness in my stomach as Seifer looks up at me with a small smile and a scar inbetween his eyes that wasn't there the night before.

Neither Squall nor Quistis are here.

* * *

a/n: And we'll end it here. The main plotline has begun, so sit back and enjoy the show! As well, I'd just like to mention the Kira bit – she can be quite a weak girl mentally in certain situations, but there's no way she would accept being a damsel in distress. She has an interesting way of thinking and taking words told to her before to another level. 

If there are any questions about her not loosing her memory yet, it's because she does not yet have a GF so the process of forgetting is just flowing normally. As well, if you think I sped things up a little here, please notify me so I'll know to slow down soon to explain and write in full detail enough scenes.

Don't forget to press the little button there and Review!


	4. Into The Lion's Den

**a/n: **Well, Chapter Four is here. Nothing to say. From now on, though, the story will mainly be focused on the plot line and there won't be any Angst for a while. (I think).

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts , GFs

**Chapter Four**  
Into The Lion's Den  
…and her new life started to truly begin

"Kira?"

I snapped my head up at Seifer's voice, who was looking curiously at me. Smiling guiltily, I brought my head up from where I was hitting it on the wooden desk and coughed, sitting up straight.

"Sorry." When he was still giving me a 'what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you?' look I gave him a slight glare to which he shrugged and turned to the front of the class, watching as Squall and Quistis walked in, Squall trudging to his desk and Quistis settling herself behind her professor one.

"Good morning class!" She announced cheerily. "Let's start with today's schedule. There seems to be some rumors flying around since yesterday…" The students start to whisper and I have a good idea of what it is. Quistis clears her throat and the class turns quiet again.

"Yes," she continues. "The field exam for SeeD candidates will begin later this afternoon. Those not participating and those who failed last week's test are to remain here in study hall. Field exam participants will have free time until the exam. Just be sure you're in top condition. Meet in the hall at 1600 hours. I'll announce the team assignments there. Any questions?" She pauses, but when no hands go up, she stands up and gives a cold look towards where Seifer and I are sitting. Specifically, right at my partner.

"Oh, and Seifer! Do NOT injure your partner while training. Be careful from now on."

I stifle a chuckle as Seifer takes one look at the brooding Squall across the aisle from us and slams his hand down on the table. "You were bound to get it sooner or later," I murmur to him, watching as students return to mingling at Quistis's dismissal.

"But you guys really shouldn't have done that," I continue, watching out of the corner of my eyes as he shrugs and turns to leave.

"You'll be trying out as well, won't you?" He asks casually, but I can see that he is waiting for an answer. My eyes narrow at the hidden clue as to what happened the week before at the Training Center.

"Yes," I answer as emotionlessly as I can. "Becoming SeeD is one of the few reasons why I am still at Garden." It's true, too. I could have refused the offer and went to live with some foster family, couldn't I?

He shrugs and raises his hand in a small wave. "Good luck and don't get yourself killed, then."

He follows some of the students out past Quistis, whose eyes trail between Squall and me. "Squall, Kira, I need to talk to you."

Already knowing what she's going to be discussing, I stand up calmly and join the brunette teenager as he walks down to the front of the classroom, stopping in front of our instructor as she observes us with a slight frown.

"You two haven't been to the Fire Carven yet, have you?" She asks and we shake our heads. "You won't be able to take part in today's SeeD exam if you don't pass this prerequisite." I shrug. I was going to take it, but…

"Hm? Do you have a good excuse?"

No, not really. I don't believe 'I want to follow the video game's plotline' is a sane enough answer.

"…Not really." Squall replies from beside me, crossing his arms across his chest, sending me a curious glance. I roll my eyes at him and raise and lower one shoulder in answer.

Quistis notices our little exchange and chuckles behind her hand. "Well, then let's get going. I'll be waiting by the Front Gate when you are ready." She's about to walk out, but then seems to remember something. "Oh, and the school has provided you with some GFs. You can take them out from your study panel at your seat."

Squall ignores the suggestion and walks out after her, so I'm guessing he already has his. I, on the other hand, still need to get mine.

Rushing back to my desk, I quickly type in my student ID and password, to which the computer hums for a few seconds before white text shows up.

'Student Name : Kira Lanning

Password :

GFs Registered :

**Shiva**

Take Out?'

Blinking dumbly at the screen, I choose the 'Yes' option and watch as a little stone of ice-blue color pops out from underneath the computer.

"Huh," I murmur, taking it and observing it from different angles. "I guess Squall's only getting Quetzacoatl."

_That's correct._

I give a small 'eep' at the voice in my head. When I find nobody in the classroom and since I know that Shiva is female at the voice talking to me is male, I try communicating with it.

…_Huh?_

The voice chuckles in an oddly familiar way, and I can feel him withdrawing.

_It's starting. Meet me in your room._

"It's starting?" I question nobody, then realize what they must be talking about. But there's only one other person—

Oh. Right. Eriol.

Wonderful.

Sighing, I continue to examine the stone, wondering what I'm supposed to do with it. "So, what now?" I question it, and to my surprise it pulses with blue light and I get the feeling it's laughing.

Something tells me that I'm supposed to bring it up to my head and I do so, wincing when the stone disappears in a small flash and a feeling of something moving around appears in my brain.

"Well, this is gonna get some time to get used to," I mutter, wondering if I can communicate with the ice queen.

_Well, this is quite comfortable._ The voice chuckles in my mind as I jump slightly in surprise. _What can I do for you, dear?_

_Um, I'd like to be able summon you? _I reply weakly, but shake my head and decide on a new approach. _You're Shiva, correct? Well, then, hi! I'm Kira! It's a pleasure to meet you._

I get a feeling that Shiva is cooing in my head, if her giggles are anything to go by. _Aw, you're a polite one! Well, Kira, it's wonderful to meet you as well. If you need anything, just call me. I'll be making myself comfortable here, then._

I walk out of the classroom and towards the dormitories, giggling when I see Squall explaining something tirelessly to a girl with curled brunette hair at the lobby.

_If you don't mind me asking, _I continue in my head, _But how are you Guardian Forces able to live in peoples' heads? I mean, I've never heard of a special place in a human's brain or anything…_

Shiva giggles again, but then sighs. _To be truthful, I'm not even sure of things like that. But it's become quite natural to us GFs. We actually enjoy the stay, too. _I can see her mentally grinning, and I must say, I'm pretty sure I'll like her. She was awesome in the games, so this shouldn't be a problem.

_Games? …Ah, I see. _I freeze slightly in my steps, paling by the second. I can feel Shiva mentally patting me on the hand. _Don't worry, dear. I'm not going to tell anyone._

I continue on, but slightly slower this time. _So… you know what happened? _I ask cautiously.

_I can see some of your memories right now, and I have the base of it, but I won't go any deeper if you don't want me to…_ She sighs in my head, and I can feel my body temperature drop slightly. _You've had it tough, haven't you? _She asks sympathetically.

_Eh, I'll manage to live through it. Somehow. _Shiva chuckles in my head.

_I can see that you can be quite weak mentally sometimes, _she assures me and I flinch. _But you're stubborn enough to get through this._

_Ah, thanks, I think? _She laughs at my reply as I turn the key in my door.

"You're finally here."

"So nice to see you, too." I reply sarcastically, ignoring Eriol sitting by my window and going towards my closet. "What did you need?" I ask, trying to find something suitable for battle.

"Oh, just checking up on you," he replies casually, and I snort.

"No, really."

He sighs and starts playing with the white curtains beside him. "The story of the game has officially begun, and I can see that you are somewhat eager to join it." He pauses, and I get the feeling he's watching me. "I've decided to help out."

I turn to look at him abruptly. "Help out with what, exactly?" I ask suspiciously, crossing my arms and leaning against the closet doors. Eriol shrugs and snaps his fingers. I follow his eyes and mine widen at the items I see on my bed.

"Holy… shit." I manage, observing my new clothes and weapons.

"I thought you might like those!" He exclaims, grinning. "As on other things, I will be messing around with the system here a little, so don't be surprised if something changes."

I look back at him as he gives me a mock-salute. "Wait, what things?" The smile on his face widens and he disappears in a flash of shiny sparkles.

Leaving me alone wondering whether I'll be facing something that definitely shouldn't be in the game. I swear, if he decides to bring a Darkside here for me to battle or something, I'll throttle him the next time I see him.

_Oh, those might prove useful! _I look at what Shiva is pointing out, and I am thoroughly surprised to find a whole bag of items. Items, as in Potions, Remedies, and such.

Examining it further proves that I now have fifteen potions, 2 hi-potions (which I don't know where he got from), five remedies, and three of echo herbs, antitodes, and holy waters.

"Really, where does he get all that stuff?" I ask, moving on to examine the guns lying next to them. They are not too different from the ones I have, only slightly larger and instead of being all black, have some red and gold on it. Shrugging, I take them and place them at my holsters, taking out the ones I've trained with for four years.

The clothes he gave me make me pause and squeal loudly.

I'm not too much of a clothes person, so I usually wear my uniform or some jeans and shirt I find lying around in my small room. But even I know good clothes when I see them.

There, lying on my bed, are quite the weirdest things I'll probably ever wear. The top consists of a sleeveless bright red shirt that stretches to my hips, with little designs on the bottom. There's also a funky necklace lying on top of it; a black and silver swirl that reminds me of a seashell. It's quite big, but I'm going to wear it anyway.

The bottom consists of these awesome black jeans that stretch all the way down with some more designs on the side, and to top it off, a bright, yellow skirt with a large black belt at the bottom of it is positioned on top of them.

Was Eriol a fashion designer or something in his past life?

Anyways, the last piece of clothing (other than the shoes, which are nothing more than ankle-length black boots with a silver buckle of some sort) is a cloak. A black, high-collar leather cloak with a small orange belt going around the center to keep it from flying out behind me.

_That boy sure knows how to accessorize!_ Shiva's squeals make me giggle, but I can't help but agree with her. Damn, Eriol's respect points have just gone up by a whole bunch!

_Ooh, try them on! _Encourages my GF and I do so gladly, coming out to examine myself.

"Damn, I look hot!" I exclaim, twirling around and striking a foolish pose. I run back to the bathroom and quickly change into the uniform with the ever-annoying skirt I have to wear for the exam before going back out again. Deciding to do something with my hair to get it out of the way, I grab two random scrunchies from my bedside table and tie my hair back in low ponytails.

"Much better!" I say to myself, brushing my bangs behind my ears.

"Hey, you're gonna be late for your test!"

I turn at the sound of my roommate's voice, who's standing at the doorway to my room grinning, her black hair in a high ponytail and green eyes sparkling in humor behind her glasses. I grin at her and give the peace sign, grabbing my sword and attaching it to my back in its sheath on the way before giving her a hug.

"Wish me luck!" I call as I run down the hall, waving to her. Karen laughs and waves back before disappearing from my eyesight.

By the time I arrive by the Front Gate, Squall is already there. I wave sheepishly at him when he gives me an accusing look, but otherwise shrug it off when Quistis smiles.

"I believe you two know about taking care of your GF and Junctioning, correct?" She asks to which we both nod, even though I have no idea how to do it in real life.

_Hm… let me try something, okay? _Shiva asks and I nod to her through our connection. I can feel her doing something to my mind, and I wait curiously until I can hear her give a small cheer.

_There! All done! Your strength has increased a little, but that's all, since you don't have much spells in stock. _Shiva explains as our party heads out of Garden. I give a small nod, trying to follow her words. _So, when you receive more magic, I'll try to apply the best to your status, alright?_

_That's great! Thanks!_ I reply back, grinning fully both on the outside and inside. _But just out of curiosity, what are my stats right now?_

Shiva does something to my brain again (I think she's exploring it or something; better not think about it) before replying back to me. _Your evasion and speed are quite good, your strength is average, but your health is something we need to work on._

_Oh, okay._

We continue walking for a few minutes, avoiding the forest in fear of a T-Rexaur attacking us. It's only when we are halfway to the Fire Cavern that we get attacked.

Our enemies are not much, just two Bite Bugs that I've fought plenty before. But, of course, since I now have a GF and need to Draw some spells, I pause in my attacking.

_Just concentrate on the enemy, _Shiva explains, seeing as how I've never done this much before since I couldn't use magic. _And focus on the spells you want to draw. Don't worry, this will become automatic in time._

I do as she says, and watch as the bug on the left flashes a pale white and I have a feeling I'm flashing as well, but then it's over. I feel strangely stronger.

_Well done! _Shiva congratulates. _You've managed to stock 6 Fires and 7 Cures. _

My eyes widen. _Whoa! That much?_

Shiva replies but I don't really listen, seeing as how Squall has just used Renzokuken on the bug he was killing, and I must say, it looks awesome! He gets surrounded by this flashy light, and then runs forward towards the poor fiend, slashing and using his trigger option like mad. The bug falls dead by the time Squall is half-way, and we collect some of the items it dropped.

"A card?" He asks, picking up a little square piece of paper, looking at it disdainfully. Quistis nods.

"Enemies have a chance of dropping Triple Raid cards, so it might prove useful to battle if you need some of them," she explains, putting away her whip.

"…But where do they keep the cards?" I ask absentmindedly, to which my companions give me odd looks. I chuckle and continue on.

By the time we arrive at the entrance of the Fire Carven, we've managed to kill quite a few bugs and stock a number of spells, including some Waters which Squall was sure would be useful by using one of his GF's abilities to turn these annoying spiky things called Fish's Fin into them.

We approach two of the Garden Faculty, who are standing in front of the cave, barring our entrance. One steps up in front of us.

"Objective: To obtain a low-level GF. A SeeD member must support," he speaks up. "Are you ready?"

Squall and I nod, and Quistis steps up. "I'm their support. Instructor No. 14, Quistis Trepe."

The Faculty step away, giving us the once over. The other one speaks up dryly.

"Select a time limit. Choose one suited to your abilities. Challenging yet reasonable."

Squall chooses for us, without my consent, to which I pout and cross my arms. "Twenty minutes," he says, ignoring my glares coming at his back. The Faculty nod their hooded heads and we step in, immediately wincing at the heat we feel. There's fire licking at the walls out of the pools of lava around us, and I'm currently hoping that I won't be stepping in there any time soon.

_Here,_ Shiva offers, and I breath out a sigh of relief as my body temperature goes down a bit, letting me breathe a little more evenly.

_Thanks,_ I reply back, to which Shiva just shakes her head and gives a small smile.

_I believe Ifrit is located around here somewhere,_ she says after a few minutes of us walking and battling. _If you take into account our surroundings, it's the best guess that he's a GF of fire._

I nod, agreeing with her, looking out for any Bombs that might attack us. There's none so far, so it's all good.

"Kira! Watch out!" Quistis's yell startles me out of my thoughts, and for a good reason, too. I dodge out of the way of the incoming Bomb, who looks mighty pissed off at having its target avoid it.

"Ooh! I just had to jinx it!" I cry, dodging another barrel roll.

_Cast Blizzard on it! Physical attacks will only make it explode! _Shiva yells in my head, and I do so, drawing from the part of my brain Shiva told me had the spells stocked.

"Guys!" I call to my comrades, who are busy dodging Fire spells. "Cast Blizzard on it! Shiva says physical attacks won't do us any good!"

Squall follows my advice, and the Bomb is soon bombarded with ice magic. After a few consecutive hits it gives a slight roar and falls to the ground motionless, the flames on its head cooling down.

Quistis nods in my direction. "Good idea, Kira. There are many elemental monsters who are only weak to magic, and only magic. You should use Scan if you're not sure." She lectures in her 'instructor' mode, and I give her a weird look then a huge smile.

"Aw, Quisty!" I call, ignoring her flinch at the mention of her nickname. "You don't have to be all profferssory around us!" She sighs and puts a hand to the side of her head, but I can see her smiling slightly.

Squall gives an impatient look towards us from where he is at the front of the group, but I wave at him and he turns back to walking, gunblade glinting on his shoulder. Quistis and I exchanged small grins before going after our leader.

"So… how far do you think we'll be going?" I question after more walking.

"Not far now!" Quistis announces as we stop at a three-way cross-road. Recognizing it, I turn to my two companions, who are just about to go finish the last stretch towards Ifrit.

"Are you guys ready? Who knows; we might not have time to prepare before battle," I suggest, mentally checking over my junctions with Shiva.

_You're all done! _She calls cheerily to me, giving the go-ahead sign. After a few silent minutes, Quistis and Squall both nod and we set off.

_We're off to see the wonderful wizard of Oz! _I hummed silently to myself, suddenly feeling giddy. After all, this was my first major fight; what's not to be excited about?

"I guess I was right," I turned my head at my blond friend's quiet voice as she stood talking with Squall a few feet off. "You and Seifer are in a class of your own. You both have amazing strength and potential."

_Ooh, I don't think that was the right thing to say,_ commented Shiva as we watched Squall flinch, which somehow went unnoticed by Quistis.

Turning to watch the pool of lava before us as it started bubbling loudly, my eyes followed the rising shape as it towered above us.

"IMPUDENT HUMANS!" Ifrit roars above us, getting his fist ready for a punch. Thankfully, he's pretty slow, so we manage to jump out of the way just in time before his fist connects with the floor, leaving a large crater.

"So… how are we going to defeat this thing?" I murmur to Squall who's kneeling beside me, while Quistis stands on the side with a clipboard in her hand. She gives an encouraging smile and Squall shakes his head.

"Quetzacoatl says he is fire-based, so we should try using as much Blizzard magic as we can," he hisses to me, getting ready to blast a spell. I stand up with him, taking out my guns and walking back a few feet.

_We already knew that, dummy. _Shiva sighs in my mind and I smile slightly. _Summon me; I'll help._

_No, I want to see how much damage we can cause on him… We can't always rely on GFs to help us, now can we? _Shiva rolls her eyes but stays silent.

"Blizzard!" I yell, sending a flurry of icicles towards Ifrit's face. He roars loudly as they hit their mark, and I jump to avoid his fists as they swing at me. "Damn, he's feisty!" I cry, watching as Squall avoids a particularly nasty Fire spell shot at him.

"Distract him!" He yells at me, and I can see his Renzokuken light surrounding him.

"Right!" I say back, jumping back a few paces. "HEY! YOU! UGLY OVER THERE!" Who said that verbal abuse didn't work? Ifrit turns towards me and his roar shakes the cavern, but I continue on jumping anyways. "You want some of this? Huh? Huh?"

As he wobbles closer to my form, I peek around him to see Squall quickly advancing. Breathing a sigh of relief, I put one of my guns in their holsters and put my free hand on the gun in my other, before hitting the trigger. I swear, my finger must be having some sort of spaz cause eight bullets fly out and hit Ifrit right on his chest, to which he topples over slightly, but looks back up at me with a growl.

"Squall, now!" I cry to my partner and he goes in for the kill, slashing Ifrit at his back multiple times. He ends it with what looks like to be Rough Divide, and Ifrit falls to the ground, lava bubbling around him.

"Did we finish him off?" I ask, edging closer towards Squall, cautiously putting a hand towards the hilt of my sword. I don't really want to use it, but if needed, I would.

"…No." I shot Squall a glare at the emotionless tone his voice was at as Ifrit stood up, looking more angry than ever.

"FOOLISH HUMANS," he growled at us, rising to his full height. Throwing his head back, he let out another mighty roar as the cave started shaking.

"Somehow, I don't think that's good." Squall deadpanned, to which I just nodded quickly, backing away slightly.

_Um, Shiva, right now would be a great time to help, please! _The ice-queen chuckled but agreed non-the-less.

_I'll be right there._

"Squall!" I called, jumping away from a falling rock that would have undoubtedly squashed me into a nice, Kira-styled pancake. "I'm summoning Shiva! Get back!" I could see him nod and he ran back a few paces, calling up Blizzard spells.

"I'm going to run out soon, so you better hurry up!" He commanded, blasting icicles towards Ifrit's neck. He gave us a nasty scowl and attempted to swipe at the brunette, but Squall quickly blasted another spell at his feet, turning him immobile effectively.

A cold chill suddenly appeared throughout the small room, blowing through the cracks. Shiva appeared abruptly in her ice cocoon, snapping her eyes open as it broke into millions of tiny little icicles. She reared up, summoning a bright ball of energy in her hands and ice formed in a trail towards Ifrit, who was quickly covered in it as Shiva finished her Diamond Dust attack by sending the ball of energy traveling with the ice.

_That was awesome!_ I all but yelled to Shiva as she returned to my head, chuckling in pleasure while I watched Ifrit sway on his feet and finally fall when Squall delivered the final slashes needed to finish him off.

"FOR ME TO LOSE TO A HUMAN…" The fire beast groaned from where he was lying on the floor. He gave a hearty sigh. "VERY WELL. I WILL JOIN YOU."

Ifrit disappeared in a nice show of sparkly lights and in his place lay a bright red stone, glinting on the floor. Squall walked over to pick it up and looked towards me, raising an eyebrow in a silent question.

"Nah, you keep him. I'll take the next one." I replied, returning my pistol to its place. Squall shrugged but held up the stone to his head, where it was absorbed into his mind.

_So… who's the next Guardian? _Shiva questioned, curious as to who she would be rooming with.

_If we play our cards right and manage to defeat him, I believe it would be Diablos. Are you acquainted with him? _I asked, gulping down one of the potions I stuffed in my pockets earlier for good measure.

_Hm, Diablos? _Shiva wrinkled her nose. _I can't say I've met him. _

_Ah, well. You'll probably like him._

"Congratulations on a job well done!" I turned to where Quistis was clapping, a bright smile on her face. "It was just in time, too. The timer stopped when you defeated Ifrit with only two minutes left."

I paled slightly at the prospect of having failed the exam, but shook it off and grinned, sticking up a peace sign. Squall shook his head and just ignored the praise, turning to exit the cavern.

"Say, say, Squall. Are you nervous about our next exam?" I yelled after him, running to catch up. "I know I am. I mean, it'll be our first time on a real mission, won't it?" I continued rambling, falling into step beside him.

Squall gave a sigh and brought a hand to his face. "We'll do fine." He expressed tonelessly, already sighting another fiend to kill.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Kira." I watched as Quistis came up beside me. "If anything goes wrong, we'll have SeeDs stationed to get the job done." She encouraged, and I grinned slyly.

"Ooh, Quisty, do you know where will be going?"

The blond let out a laugh and patted my shoulder teasingly. "You won't be getting anything from me, cadet." She turned to call to Squall. "Let's go back. The team assignments should be starting soon."

---

---

We stopped at the Front Gates of our Garden, Quistis walking a few steps in front of us before turning back and going into her instructor mode. "Change into your uniform and assemble at the 1F Lobby." She nodded to us. "That is all."

She left with a small salute to us, and I turned to look curiously to Squall. "So… who do you think you'll be paired up with?" When he stayed silent, ignoring me, I let out a small grin.

"Won't it be funny if I get stuck with you and Zell, and Seifer's gonna be our captain?" I asked innocently, inwardly laughing alongside Shiva.

_You shouldn't jinx it, _she chided me after calming down. _Look what happened with the Bomb._

I winced. _Oh, good point. Buttt… hopefully everything's gonna go right._

I could see Shiva smile in amusement. _Right, right._

"Hey!" I suddenly called to Squall, noticing him walking away. "Where're you going?" He shrugged slightly.

"We're to meet at the Lobby. I suggest you go change as well." I coughed into my hand.

"Right, right." Doing a 180-spin to face the gates where Squall and Quistis had just gone through, I let out a loud call.

"ONWARD, MY MINIONS!"

_I won't even ask who you were referring to, _cackled Shiva in my head. I tried sending her a wry look, which I think worked by the way her laughter went up.

_Just wait until I get another GF. Hopefully he'll put you into place._

_Right, of course. But do you really think anyone with the name 'Diablos' would help you? _She asked as we started for the halls.

My eye twitched. "Oh, shut it, you." A ten-year-old kid passing by gave me a weird look before running off towards who-knows-where.

_Oh, yeah. Go ahead and scare the little kids. _

An ice-queen's cackles can really get on your nerves sometimes.

* * *

a/n: And finished. 

Don't forget to Review please!

**Short bio? Meh.**

**Name: **Kira Lanning  
**Age : **17. Appeared at Garden at age 13.  
**Weapon : **Guns and sword.  
**Personality : **Cheeky, sarcastic, impatient, (unknown)  
**Quirks : **Being ignored, (unknown)  
**Friends/Partners : **Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe, Squall Leonheart, Seifer Almasy, Fuujin (last name unknown), Raijin (last name unknown), Karen Milard, (unknown)  
**GF(s) **: Shiva  
**Specializes** (unknown)


	5. Down Down The Road We Go!

**Disclaimer: **Nuu, I don't own anything. Everything belongs to Squeenix. : )

**a/n: **Chapter Five is here – another long chapter, longer than I've ever written, me thinks. I've also happily (or not so happily; I can't decide) have just realized that the character Kira Lanning is practically a reflection of me. –nods- Yep. So you can consider this a sort of self-insert. Of course, I doubt any of us humans would actually do something that's going to happen here, but who knows?

I also need ideas for Kira's Limit Break. If you have suggestions, please feel free to PM them to me or drop them in a review.  
…and if you can relate the titles of my chapters with the chapters themselves, then you get a cookie.

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts , GFs

**Chapter Five  
**Down, Down the Road We Go!  


I was still arguing with my Guardian by the time I arrived at the crowded lobby, so the sight made me stop for a few minutes. There were people _everywhere_. I know there were supposed to be only twelve (thirteen with me) candidates, but it seems that almost every person had some friends coming with them to wish them luck.

_Well, your headmaster better have a good way to get these under control! _Commented Shiva, watching as two children ran around a girl my age, grinning and smiling.

"Squall! Over here!" I turned at the mention of Squall's name and Quistis's voice, my eyes following them as Quistis continued to explain the team assignments. I watched as Zell flipped over to them, a large smile on his face. I watched as Squall said something to Quistis, my guess being that he asked to switch members.

Zell scowled at him and said something back, and it was probably a comment about Seifer seeing as how Squall turned his back on him and crossed his arms. I continued observing as Quistis laughed about something before calling Seifer's name on the little microphone attached to her ear and then as he sauntered over with Fuujin and Raijin in tow.

My heart gave a small bang.

I wasn't with their team.

"Kira Lanning. Please report to Squad B under Quistis Trepe."

_Well, looks like you got lucky. _I shooed Shiva away and hurried over with a large grin on my face. "Here!" I called, stopping beside Zell, who slung an arm around me.

"Well!" He said, grinning. "Looks like I got at least someone I can get along with here!" I laughed and turned to look at Quistis, who had an amused smile on her face.

"Looks like I got lucky, huh?" I commented to her and she nodded before looking us all over.

"Well then," she began in a no-nonsense tone. "You're all assigned to Squad B. I'll be the Instructor in charge. Teamwork is of the utmost importance. Let's get through this exam, everyone!"

I gave a small hoot of agreement and turned to watch as Headmaster Cid appeared at a small podium set up by the fountain. He coughed to get our attention, which worked effectively.

"It's been a while, everyone." He greeted, looking at us happily. "How's everyone doing? This exam will involve 13 members from Squads A through D… You will be proceeding to a real battlefield. Obviously, the battles are for real. Life and death, victory and defeat, honor and disgrace… Each of these go hand in hand. There's only one way or the other. How 'bout it? Are you still up for it? You will be accompanied by 9 SeeD members. Should you fail, these members shall get the job done. They always do. Well, that's one less worry on your mind. The pride of Balamb Garden! The elite mercenary force, SeeD! Learn from then, obey their commands and accomplish the mission. Prove yourselves worthy of becoming a member of SeeD."

He gave an embarrassing cough, realizing he got a bit carried away with his speech. "Best of luck."

The student squads started to disperse and we turned to Quistis, who was already starting for the Parking Lot.

"So, how do you think you'll do?" I turned as Seifer came up behind me and I shrugged.

"Who knows." I answered, watching him quietly. "Maybe I'll pass, maybe I won't. In any way, I think this will be an… educating experience. What about you?"

He raised and lowered one shoulder in answer and went on ahead. "Like you said," he called back. "Who knows."

Sighing, I followed after my teammates, only to be stopped by a hand on my shoulder. Zell smiled sheepishly when I frowned at him questioningly and rubbed the back of his head.

"You… and Seifer are friends, right?" He asked after a few seconds of us walking behind our squad in silence. When I nodded, he sighed slightly. "No… offence, but I don't think he's the best guy for you to be hanging around with."

I frowned and turned back to him. "I'm flattered that you're worried about me and all," See how he is a mother-hen? "But I've known Seifer for four years now. He's not that bad." Smiling slightly at him, I gave him a pat on the shoulder and ran to catch up with our group, where they were waiting in our car already.

"Sorry for that!" I said as I climbed in, settling for a seat beside Seifer and opposite of Squall as the blond moved to make space. Shooting a gratifying glance at him, I watched as Zell climbed in after me and frowned, looking around for some space.

Sighing, I prodded Seifer in the shoulder ignoring his mutters, moving over to make room for our other blond companion. We managed to drive in blissful silence for a few minutes before Zell leaned forward towards Squall.

"Yo, Squall. Show me your gunblade, will ya?"

I stifled a giggle as Squall's eye twitched barely, but he remained silent otherwise.

"C'mon, man!" Whined Zell, leaning even closer.

"…"

"Just a peek!"

…You've no idea how wrong this conversation is sounding.

"…" Still no reply from our favourite brooding gunblade wielder.

Zell scoffed. "Tch, fine… Yeah, yeah… Why you bein' so selfish!? Scrooooge!"

I could hear Seifer just bursting to laugh beside me, so I stabbed him with my elbow to the side, effectively shutting him up. "What'd you do that for?" He murmured, glaring at me from the sides of his eyes. I smirked at him slightly and returned to watching the exchange. It seemed that Zell had almost given up.

"Say somethin', will ya!? W-what's on your mind?"

"…Nothing." Squall and Quistis replied back at the same time, causing our instructor to burst out laughing. After a few more minutes of silence that I really wish would last, Zell decides to stand up and practice his fighting.

"Stop that, it's annoying…"

_That boy really doesn't have any manners, does he? _Shiva sighed in my head, obviously meaning Seifer, who was scowling tauntingly at Zell.

"…Chicken-wuss."

I slapped my forehead in frustration, knowing that now he'd done it.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" Zell screeched, looking just about ready to punch the living daylights out of Seifer. Seeing that, Seifer smirked and crossed his arms, laughing.

"OI, YOU BASTARD!" Zell continued yelling. "I DARE YOU TO REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!"

Seifer stopped and raised an eyebrow at the fighter. "What's wrong now? Hearing problems, Chicken-wuss?"

"Oh, for the love of!" I finally snapped, bringing their attention away from their argument and to yours truly. "Would both of you shut up and knock it off? What are you, five?" When I got no response, I glared heatedly at them in turn.

"Seifer, shut your mouth and stop with the petty name-calling! Zell, sit down right now and stop with the murderous look on your face!"

…_My, dear. Remind me to never get you mad, mmkays? _My resident commented dryly after a few seconds of stunned silence. I cracked a small satisfied smile and burrowed myself deeper in to the seat.

"…Instructor…" Our attention shifted to Squall, who was staring at the floor, deep in thought. "…Who was that girl in the infirmary this morning?"

My ears perked up at the mention at Ellone. _Good, everything's going fine so far. _

Quistis frowned. "Was someone there? I didn't notice anybody. Is there a problem?"

Squall shook his head. "No… not really." Seifer sighed from beside me, stretching out an arm and putting it around the back of my seat.

"This is great…" he started sarcastically. "I have a Chicken-wuss and a guy who just reached puberty in my squad…" Zell's eye twitched but he remained calm.

"What about Kira?" He asked, shooting me a glance. Seifer paused in thought for a few seconds before smirking and putting the arm around my shoulders.

Personal space bubble needed right now please.

"She's our cheerleader," he commented as I shrugged his arm off, giving him a jab in the side. He winced and rubbed his ribs. "A very PMSing cheerleader."

"The only reason keeping me from hurting you permanently," I started, fingers twitching to reach for my guns. "Is because you're my squad leader." He shot me a dark glare but stayed silent for the rest of the trip, thankfully.

…Okay, I don't know who the hell is driving this car, but they need to retake their test right now! I swear, they are very close to running us into the ocean and I am in no mood right now for a cold dip! …And I am in no mood to go crashing into the brick gates of Balamb either thank you very much!

"…Who the hell is driving this thing?" I hiss to no one in particular, gripping tightly onto my seat in order to not fall flat on my face as Zell had just done, seconds before.

"You guys okay in there!?" The voice of Raijin echoes through the small compartment from where I am guessing he is driving. Another voice replies, sounding mighty pissed off.

"ROAD. CONCENTRATE!" Fuujin practically roars at her companion, snapping his attention back to the road.

"Sorry!" Calls Raijin back sheepishly. "It's just hard to maneuver with all these monsters around, ya know? …Ouch!"

I'm getting the feeling that Fuujin has just kicked him. Whoo, go her! Beat some sense into the poor guy!

"Raijin!" I cry as we hit another bump, swerving to the side manically. "Did you ever gets your driver's license!?" There's silence to my reply before the teenager's voice calls back.

"…You need those?"

I have a strong urge to scream and bash something into the walls of the transportation car, but somehow manage to resist and instead settle for gritting my teeth and hissing curses every time we get off track.

Relief is shining on everyone's (except maybe Squall's) faces as we finally arrive at the docks of Balamb, nearly running straight into the ocean beside us. I stagger out after Seifer, shielding my eyes from the sunlight.

"So that's the vessel…?"

I turn my attention to where Squall is looking at, and notice a small ship floating peacefully by the wooden platform, where a Garden member is waiting.

Seifer comes up beside me and observes it as well, another small smirk making its way onto his face. "Ain't no turning back now. Huh? You scared, too?" He calls to Squall, but the brunette just ignores him, settling for walking towards the pier, where the man is yelling at us.

"Hey! You guys are the last! Hurry up and get in!"

Seifer turns to me and winks before running after Squall. "Don't disappoint me now." I stare after him in confusion. Disappoint? Huh?

"Come on, move it!" Quistis calls behind me, pushing me forward slightly towards the ship. We pile in and settle in almost the same places as we were on the car, me sitting abnormally close to Seifer on the one-man seat. I swear he's probably enjoying this.

…I still need to talk to him about that. Maybe later…?

"Hi, Quistis."

I snap out of my thoughts as another woman walks in, her short hair tucked neatly behind her ears and wearing the standard SeeD uniform. Quistis smiles and stands up to make way for her.

_She must be Xu._

"Well, these are the members of Squad B!" Quistis introduces happily, and I give her a little wave when her gaze falls upon me. The smile on her face quickly falls, however, when she notices my companion and sighs.

"Seifer, how many times has it been now that you've taken this test?" He rolls his eyes and spreads his arms over the back of the seat again.

"Oh, I just love these exams…" He replies sarcastically, ignoring Xu as she shakes her head and moves towards the front of our little cabin, where a built-in television of some sort is located.

"I'll explain the current situation and the mission," she begins, and the screen behind her lights up with various images and maps. "Our client for this mission is the Dollet Dukedom Parliament. A request for SeeD was made 18 hours ago. Dollet has been under attack by the G-Army since about 72 hours ago. Forty-nine hours into the battle, Dollet abandoned their position in the inner city. Currently, they have retreated into the nearby mountains and are reorganizing their troops. That's the current status. Now onto the mission objective."

The screen changes again to a detailed map of the Dollet city area. "According to our reports, the G-Army is mopping up the Dollet troops in the mountain region. We're to make a landing at Lapin Beach. We're to eliminate the remaining G-Army within the city and liberate it A.S.A.P. Afterwards, SeeD members will intercept any G-Army forces trying to make their way into the city from the mountain region."

I frown, finding this a little harder to understand than I had thought. Seifer crosses his arms beside me and frowns as well, sounding bored.

"So, what are WE supposed to do?" He questions, and Xu sighs wearily before continuing her explanation.

"SeeD candidates are to eliminate the G-Army inside the city."

Zell lets out a whistle from where he is across of me. "Sounds important!" He voices.

Seifer leans back again and scowls. "Sounds boring. So what you're saying is, we do all the little, dirty work…"

Somehow, I'm actually agreeing with him. It sounds a little… I dunno. Easy?

"….Oh, it hardly needs to be said, but…" We turn our heads back to Xu. "The order to withdraw takes priority. Do not forget. We're almost there. We anticipate a battle as soon as we disembark. Just be prepared. That's all. If you have any questions, talk to Quistis." She nods in our general direction and leaves to where I presume is the pilot of this thing.

Seifer sighs and stands up beside me, observing us with a calculating look. "Listen up!" He announces. "Our goal for this mission is to mop up all the Galbadian soldiers still left in Dollet. All you boys have to do is take orders from me, your captain."

I cough to gain his attention and wave, raising an eyebrow. "Captain, sir, what am I to do?" I ask mockingly. "Cause there's no way I'm standing on the sidelines." Seifer looks slightly troubled, but I continue on anyways. "I came here to fight and pass this exam as well, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't leave me out."

Seifer rolls his eyes and sits back down, muttering a "Fine. Do whatever you want" on the way. I shoot him a wayward look and give a small sigh.

"I don't need you to protect me, Seifer." I mutter out of the corner of my mouth to him where he tenses up, not wanting for the others to overhear. "I admit I needed your protection when we were younger, but we've grown now. I've grown up too, believe it or not." He cracks a small smile at the attempt to lighten the mood. "I know how to fight now, and even though it's not the best, I can protect myself. I… I have others to help me along the way, too."

I hesitate slightly and gulp. "And… I need to talk to you about… what happened last week soon." He watches me for a few seconds before shrugging and turning to watch as Zell stands up and begins to pace.

"My first real battle…" I can hear him mumble. "I'm getting pretty nervous."

"Better not piss your pants," Seifer smirks beside me, back to his usual self. Zell turns to glare at him.

"Hah!? You talkin' to me?" When he gets no response from the boy other than laughter, he clenches his fists and turns to sit back at his seat, mumbling curses about 'bastards' and 'bastards with large egos'.

"Okay, enough talk." Quistis announces, clapping her hands for attention. "We'll be landing pretty soon. Get ready."

Zell nods. "Roger."

I shrug. "Sure."

"Yeah, yeah…" Seifer waves it off, instead turning to face Squall. "Well then, Squall. Go see what's going on outside." The brunette sighs but stands up anyway, walking outside to Seifer's jeering calls of "Good. Because it's MY order!"

---

---

None of us get injured pretty bad by the time we arrive in Central Square to finish our assignment, so we just stand restlessly around the center of the city. Finally, Seifer pushes himself off the wall he was leaning on and walks over to the center. "All right!" He calls. "I want you guys to scout the area for enemies."

We shrug but set off anyways. We encounter no soldiers, so I decide to speak up. "…So. What do you guys think of this mission so far?" Zell shrugs in answer and Squall just plain ignores me, so I get their hint at not wanting to talk and shut up, instead deciding to turn to Shiva for some company.

_So, what have you been doing in there? _I ask, walking around a turned-over car. Shiva shrugs in my mind's eye.

_There's nothing really interesting in here. But then again, some of your memories are worth watching… _She laughs nervously when I try to give her a mental glare. _But really. Tell me more about yourself._

I sigh as we continue walking. _I don't know what to tell you. What do you want to know?_

_Hmm… well, tell me about your family and friends and your past life._ She suggests, but quickly adds. _Only if you want to, because if it's still sad for you to recall—_

I cut her off. _No, it's fine. I should probably think about them once in a while. Well, let's see. My mom's name is Katya and she's the most awesome mom ever, probably. My dad is named Michael, and he's the type of dad you often wish you never had because he's so damn strict… but I love him anyways. My best friends were these two girls named Maria and Nicole, and we used to do the stupidest things together._

I shook my head, trying to recall more. _Let's see. Maria was this crazy-all-around type of girl who could come up with the randomest things ever and Nicole was more down-to-earth; enough to balance out Maria. I was kind of inbetween that, so I've had them rub off on me for quite a few years. I didn't have any brothers or sisters which I'm glad for, because I don't think I would have been able to stand them._

_I was heading down home for my birthday celebration with my parents when I was crossing the road and—yeah. _I cut off, not really wanting to go beyond that. Shiva stays silent for some while we explore, apparently thinking of something.

…_You said it was your birthday then, right? _She asks and I give her an affirmative nod. _What date was it?_

I pause to think it over. I haven't actually celebrated my birthday while I was here, so it's kind of hard to remember when someone asks. _I know it was almost the end of the school year, so… oh yeah! It was June 20, I believe. _

_So today would be your birthday,_ commented Shiva smugly and I could have smacked my head.

_I guess it is, huh? Who would have thought – I'd have all of this begin right on my birthday! _It's then that Shiva breaks out in a very off-tune version of 'Happy Birthday' and I can't help but laugh, earning weird glances from my two companions.

"Sorry," I apologize. "Shiva's singing something, and she's not that good."

_Hey! _The ice-queen scoffs in my head. _I can hear you very well, you know!_

I laugh again, but this time mentally, noting that we are almost back at where we started.

"Stop right where you are!"

The voice draws our attention as a Galbadian soldier jumps out from behind some random car parked on the street, pointing a gun towards us. Pfft. My gun is so much better than his.

_Focus on the battle! _Shiva remarks in my head and I do so, managing to draw a few Blizzard spells from the guy before pointing my gun at him and hitting the trigger just before Squall sends him sprawling to the ground with a few slashes of his gunblade.

Hopefully, the guy's only knocked out and not dead. But… I've probably helped kill some of their troops earlier.

I gulp and shake my head to rid myself of the thoughts. _I don't need these right now,_ I scowl to myself, returning the gun to its place and following Squall and Zell back towards Seifer, who's lounging against some wall again.

"I think that's all of them," Squall informs him as we step in and Seifer groans.

"Well then, we're on standby until the enemy comes. Standby…how boring…" I sigh, finding myself agreeing with him again. It's then that a loud noise goes off in the distance, causing some poor dog to stumble upon us as he runs in, tail between his legs. I kneel as it stops before me, whimpering, and scratch it behind the ears.

"Aw, you poor thing." I murmur, standing back up as he (or she, you never know) runs over to Seifer and starts nipping at his heels. The blond ignores it for a few seconds, looking towards the general direction of where the sound came from.

"Sounds like it's starting," Squall says, looking with him as well. Seifer smirks and nods.

"Bring it on!" The dog keeps on nipping and he must be getting annoyed because he tries to shake it off. "Get out of here! Scram!" The dog gives a low whine and scurries off.

"Hey!" Seifer suddenly yells, walking over to the other side of the plaza, waving his gunblade around like crazy. "Galbadian Soldiers! What are you waiting for!? Come and show me what you got!"

Squall groans to himself at the act and Zell and I watch on in amusement as our leader starts slashing his weapon at imaginary enemies. "Still keeping us waiting…?" He says after a few more minutes, scowling. "That's it…! I can't take it anymore! What is this, some kind of dog training!?"

The dog from before suddenly runs in and I manage to grab our stubborn leader and drag him behind the fountain with us just as a troupe of Galbadian soldiers run in, looking around before heading up and out of town.

"It's the enemy…" Squall points out the obvious as we stand back up.

"Where the hell they goin'?" Questions Zell, and I decide to point out the Communication Tower to them by looking up where the soldiers ran and raising a finger to point at it.

"Hey? What do you think that up there is?" I ask and the guys look towards it, trying to figure what it is for a few minutes before Seifer smirks widely and turns to look at us.

"Our next destination."

"But that's against orders!" Zell splutters, looking at Seifer in rage. Seifer raises an eyebrow tauntingly.

"Weren't you just saying how bored you were?"

Zell turns to Squall, hoping for some help, but Squall crosses his arms and shrugs. "I stand by the captain's decision." He announces, and Zell stares at him before turning to me pleadingly. "Kira?"

I shrug as well and cross my arms behind my back sheepishly. "Sorry, Zell, but I kind of want to find out what's going there as well…" His head drops and Seifer walks over to me, slinging an arm around my shoulders before looking at Zell.

"If you don't want to you can stay here," he comments, "We don't need any boy scouts."

Huh. I didn't think those existed in this world.

"What was that!!!?" Zell yells, advancing towards him. I sigh at their behavior – it feels as if I am dealing with five year olds instead of mercenaries in training once more.

"Don't take him seriously, Zell." I advice before turning to Seifer. "And Seifer, if we're gonna go, let's hurry."

He nods and starts heading out of the city, taking the same path the soldiers just took. "The enemy is headed for the facility on top of that mountain. We, Squad B, are to secure the summit. Move out!"

He runs off and Zell scoffs, muttering a "Tch… Fine" before running off after us. We get across the bridge with no problem and as we run up one of the carved-in stone stairways up to the top where the Tower is, the bushes rustle and we ready our weapons, only to see a Dollet soldier who crawls out.

He takes one look at us and our assorted gunblades, guns or fists, and his eyes widen. "Ahhh! W-W-Who are you!!?"

I take a step forward to him and lower my gun before kneeling down by him and casting a Cure, seeing as how he looks like he needs it. "Don't worry. We're SeeD candidates. We've been dispatched by Garden." I explain and the soldier gives a sigh of relief.

"So what's going up there?" Seifer questions, putting Hyperion on his shoulder. The Dollet man nods quickly in thanks to me before starting to tell the situation to our leader.

"The Galbadian soldiers have entered the Communication Tower. On top of that… that place has always been a nesting ground for monsters. If you guys are going up there, be caref…H-HELP!!" He is interrupted as a tentacle shoots out of the bush behind him, grabbing his ankle and dragging him back into the shrubbery.

I manage a small 'eep' as it shoots out again, this time aiming for me. As quickly as I can I crawl backwards resembling a crab, but the maneuver thankfully works and I am out of the monsters' range, instead staring fearfully at the place where it just was.

"Damn!" Zell says, walking over beside me. "Are you okay?" I nod at him and stand up, dusting off my skirt of any dust and dirt that may have settled there.

Zell smiles in relief at me before rushing to where the monster is, Squall in tow. I'm just about to go in when I feel a hand in my shoulder, and it turns out to be Seifer, who's watching me with slight worry.

"You should be more careful next time," he tells me and I frown.

"It was an accident. Things like that happen all the time." I reply, watching sadly for some reason as he takes his hand off and runs it through his hair before muttering some words and disappearing after the other two students.

I continue watching the space where he had just left, wondering as to why I suddenly feel so… so sad, for lack of better words.

_Oh, dear. _Shiva coos in my head. _It seems you have a case of love sickness._

My head snaps up and my hands twitch. _What do you mean love sickness? _She gives me a weird look through the connection we have between ourselves and sighs, shaking her head.

_You've fallen for him. Quite bad, might I add._

I bite my lip, pondering what my GF had just said. Have I really started to like Seifer in _that _way?

_Of course, _I reply back to myself. _If I didn't, we wouldn't have all these awkward moments and I wouldn't have enjoyed the kiss he gave me._

_Kiss? _Shiva perks up and I sigh, giving her the go-ahead to go and look at the memory. I hear from her a few seconds later, and she sounds quite sympathetic for me.

_That boy… he sure is an interesting one. _She finally says, tapping her chin in thought. _I don't feel any bad intentions coming from him, but I suggest watching out for him. _She pauses. _You also need to sort out your feelings for him. I can see that you are confused about not knowing what to do._

_Yeah, something like that, I guess. _I reply, deciding to finally join my comrades in their fight against the Anaconduer. _And you are right; we should watch out for him._

"Yo, Kira! Why are you so late?" I smile sheepishly at Zell's question as he continues punching the snake-like fiend and take out my own weapons, firing a few rounds before replying.

"Sorry. Just thinking!"

Zell finally finishes the monster off with a finishing blow and stands there, panting heavily. I toss him a potion and he gladly drinks it, the minor scratches here and there on his arms and face disappearing.

"Monsters, huh?" Squall asks, cleaning off his gunblade by sticking it in the ground. Seifer does the same before running off, forcing us to do nothing but follow him.

There are some fights with left-over soldiers and we defeat them easily, finally finding Seifer lying on his stomach, watching some soldiers talk to each other at the Tower's entrance below. We lie down beside him just as another soldier runs out and salutes the two.

"The generator is up and running!" He informs them. The soldier on the right salutes him back.

"No problem with the boosters!"

Seifer quirks an eyebrow. "…the hell they doing?" He asks and I shush him, wanting to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Cable disconnection confirmed! Begin exchange process!" The last soldier says from where he is to the side, and the first soldier nods before running back in.

"Repairs…?" I blink, following the other two soldiers as they run inside as well after their comrade. Seifer stands up and turns to us as we dust ourselves off as well.

"Who cares. This must be your first real battle. You scared?" He asks, and Squall shakes his head.

"…I don't know. I try not to think about it."

"I love battles." Seifer continues. "I fear nothing. The way I look at it, as long as you make it out of battle alive, you're one step closer to fulfilling your dream."

I choose to stay out of the conversation.

Squall looks surprised. "What!? Your dream?" Seifer gives him a weird look.

"You have one too, don't you?" Squall closes his eyes and shakes his head again.

"…Sorry, but I'm gonna pass on the subject." Apparently, Seifer chooses me as his next interrogation subject because he looks at me and asks:

"What about you, Kira? Do you have a dream?"

Talk about déjà vu.

"Um…" To be truthful, I still haven't thought about it that much. "I guess… a few years back, I wanted to go home, and that was my dream. But now I know for certain that I can't, so if you look at it from different points of view…" I shrug guiltily. "I guess I don't have a dream."

Seifer frowns slightly at that, but the moment is interrupted by Zell, who jumps closer to us.

"Yo! Let me in on it, too!" The blond gunblade wielder turns his back on him and starts walking away, ignoring the punches Zell starts sending at where he had just been.

"Mind your own business."

"Why, that bastard…!" I smile sympathetically at Zell and pat his shoulder in hopes of calming him down, and it thankfully seems to work.

"There you are!"

We focus our attention up above, from where the same girl I had seen Squall showing around starts tumbling down the cliff, landing ungracefully near us. She smiles cheerily despite the position she is in and waves slightly.

"I'm a messenger, from Squad A. Name's Selphie. This squad's captain is Seifer, right? Where is he?" She looks around, and her eyes light up when they land on Squall. "Wait a minute! You're the guy who showed me around Garden! Thanks so much; I don't get so lost anymore!" She giggles sheepishly.

"One day…" Seifer's voice appears from below us, and we watch as he stops and smirks at us.

"One of these days, I'm gonna tell ya 'bout my ROMANTIC dream!" Uh oh. Please don't tell he's looking at me as he says that.

_He's looking at you,_ confirms Shiva, and I'm getting the feeling she's slightly enjoying watching this.

Aw, great. Now both Zell AND Squall are shooting me weird looks. No, you idiots, he's talking about being a sorceress's knight.

Right?

…Right.

I think.

Don't you just love my uncertainness?

"Oh boy…" Selphie mutters from beside us before running towards the cliff and shouting to the figure of Seifer, who's just about to enter the building. "HEYY!" She yells loudly, and I swear Seifer is just ignoring her. Prick. "Captaiiin! Waiiit up!"

And she jumps off the cliff.

No, seriously. She jumps off the god-forsaken cliff. Sure, I had seen it before in the game, but seeing somebody jump like that in real life?

"What are you waiting for!?" Selphie calls to us from below, waving her arms. "Come on! Come on!" Shrugging to myself and deeming myself crazy, I start towards the cliff.

"You're not serious, are you!?" Cries Zell from behind me, in full panic mode, eyes zipping between the cliff and myself.

"I believe I am," I deadpan before I jump off. Really, it's not that bad. I don't even have time to scream anything idiotic and only get to wonder how my skirt isn't flying up before I land securely on the ground beside Selphie. She shoots me a worried look and I nod, showing that I'm just peachy. Zell and Squall come around the corner a few minutes later, and the first words out of Zell's mouth are:

"You're crazy. Both of you. Who the hell jumps off a 10-foot cliff?"

I raise my hand and wave foolishly at him and he just continues staring at me. "It would have been much quicker for you guys!" Comments Selphie from my side and I nod in agreement.

"Quicker!?" Freaks Zell, waving his arms around. "Like I said – who the hell jumps off a cliff? Right, Squall!?"

Squall shrugs, and to my greatest surprise (and amusement) replies with a:

"I don't know about that. Maybe anyone by Chicken-wuss can make it." Zell stares at him, gobsmacked, until reality hits in and he starts yelling his head off at our companion.

"WHAT DID YOU SAYYYYYY!!!?" He screams much like he did with Seifer, and I'm currently wondering why there aren't any soldiers here yet to check out the loud disturbance. Selphie giggles beside me and looks Zell over.

"Since you're so angry, I'm guessing you're the Chicken-wuss." It's not even a question; it's a statement, to which Zell turns to her and glares heatedly, all the while whining loudly.

"WHY IS EVERYONE…? I am not a damned CHICKEN!!!" He cries, and I can't help but add in a comment of my own, having just too much amusement at seeing him flip out like that. It's not like we actually mean it or anything.

"You know, if you don't like CHICKEN, how about a cow?"

"Ooh, no, a PIG!" Selphie squeals and we start laughing non-stop, and even Squall cracks a smile. Zell fumes for a few more seconds before hanging his head in defeat.

"Chicken, cow, pig…" He mutters to the ground. "Whatever. Call me whatever you want! I don't care anymore!" He stands up and crosses his arms in determination, and Selphie and I stoop our laughter to giggles.

"Don't take it so personally, Zell!" I say, patting him on the shoulder like I always find myself doing to show that we didn't really mean it. He just scoffs and turns to look at the Communication Tower. We all follow his example.

"So… this is the Communication Tower," Selphie whispers, looking up its length, which towers above us. "Sure is big…" Suddenly, the automatic doors open and a soldier runs out, screaming on top of his lungs.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!" We watch as he runs backup the way we just came, screaming all the while. Seifer emerges behind us, swishing his gunblade around.

"Cowards," he says before returning back in, ignoring the lot of us.

"HEY!" Selphie and I yell after him, running inside with Zell and Squall on our heels. "CAPTAIN!" Calls Selphie, but Seifer has already gone up to the roof on the elevator, which is now descending towards us.

"We going up?" Asks Zell but we ignore him and hop on, waiting as it slowly, slowly starts moving back up.

"Wow…!" Exclaims our brunette female friend, peering over the edge. "This is so cool!"

Zell frowns at her and manages to catch her just in time as she almost flies off the platform as it suddenly increases in speed. "Be careful not to fall off!" He orders, to which Selphie just pouts and crosses her arms.

We arrive at the rooftop with no Seifer in sight, but instead we see some Galbadian Soldiers discussing something over some sort of control panel, the one in the red muttering about being stuck doing all the repairs, while the one in blue tries to talk to him.

"Major Biggs!" He cries, saluting. "There've been reports a monster-shaped shadow on top of the tower!" When he is ignored, he tries again. "MAJOR BIGGS!"

'Major Biggs' waves him off. "Be quiet!" He snaps, almost getting electrocuted. "Damn it… this goes here and that goes there… AGH, what's up with these crappy old tools? AHHH!"

Seeing as how his commander is practically PMSing over the control panel, the soldier in blue slowly edges away. "Sir, I'll check around while the repairs are being done!" And then he zooms off towards some other side of the roof, still not noticing our presence.

"Let's see…" Biggs is muttering to himself again like a nutcase. "Put this here, and this here, and this goes here… and there, it's complete!" He cries finally and we watch as a gigantic satellite dish appears out of the rooftop above us with procedures for some sort of bombing weapon, and starts sending a signal to… somewhere.

"What do you think you're doing?" Squall suddenly asks, deciding to make the soldier notice us. The guy does so and almost falls on his ass at the 180-degree turn, but straightens when he notices that he's facing kids.

Huh. Bastard.

"Huhhhh? Likewise, MISTER! What do you think you're doing!?" Dude. You're insulting a guy who has a huge-ass gunblade strapped to his back. It's then that Biggs notices that there are no soldiers around him to back him up. …Idiot.

"H-HEY! What happened to all the soldiers down below?" I take a step forward and cheerily wave at the poor commander.

"They went ka-boom, sir!" I announce with the enthusiasm of a five-year-old who just won a free supply of yearly ice-cream. Selphie stifles a laugh behind me, but Biggs just looks at me as if I am I am crazy.

"WEDGE!" He searches around frantically, probably looking for that other soldier who was with him. "Take care of these twerps!!! W…Wedge?" Noting that his companion is nowhere near in sight, he starts edging nervously towards the elevator behind us. "I… ah… well, ah, I seem to be done here, so I'll just be on my I-I'm leaving… Move! Move! Move!"

We watch his with something akin to a cross between amusement and sympathy as he is almost near the elevator. His attempt at escape gets foiled by Seifer, who appears with the elevator as it comes up and cockily bats Biggs's gun out of his hand.

"Sorry to crash the party!" He calls to us, stepping out in front of the spluttering Galbadian man.

"Are you CRAZY!!" Yells Biggs before attacking us. Seifer has had some sense to disappear from the battle, so it's only Selphie, Squall, Zell and I. The guy's pathetically easy, so all we do for a while is draw some of his spells. Did you know that he has some useful Cures? I've been trying to get some more of these…

_Battle, Kira. _Shiva reminds me in my mind and I nod mentally to her, shooting in front of Biggs just enough times to scare the hell outta him.

"Major Biggs! Have you finished the repairs, sir?" Wedge takes one look at us and his eyes bulge. "What is the enemy doing here!?"

Biggs scowls at him. "WEDGE! Wedge, where were you!? No pay for you this month!" Wedge mumbles something back and starts attacking us with his shortsword, which we manage to endure easily.

"Major!" Cries Wedge again after a few minutes of us kicking their asses. "We're doomed, sir!"

"Stop your whining!" Snaps Biggs back at him, quickly casting a Cure on his comrade. Unfortunately for them (or for us; depends how you look at it) their next wave of attacks is cut short by a strong whirlwind, which sends them spiraling off the roof and towards the ground. Ooh, I hope they don't die from the fall, cause they're kind of entertaining…

"What the hell is that thing!?" Cries Zell as Elvoret descends upon us, crying angrily. Ooh, I think we disturbed its sleep…

I suddenly notice Squall taking a beating from the bird-like fiend and quickly send him one of my awesome potions, but before it reaches him Squally is standing up with the Limit Break light around him and starts slashing like hell at the bird… I don't want to see him in Berserk mode. Do you?

"Kira! Focus!"

The cry comes from Selphie and I manage to give a yelp and jump back from the bird who hadn't died after Renzokuken and only receive a nick on my shoulder. Wincing at the pain, I start shooting at it, yelling for Zell to get out of the way so I won't get him.

"Damn it!" I yell after my shots don't appear to have done any great damage to the bird.

_Why don't you use your sword? I haven't seen you use it yet, _Shiva suggests and I pause in my attacks for a moment, trying to decide.

_And Draw! There's something there! _She adds quickly.

"Ah, what the hell!" I mumble and draw the sword from behind my head. It's nothing extraordinary; it's about normal length with a silver blade and a black and red hilt. It's the only sword I've ever had (my teacher had me start out with it to get used to it; his words, not mine) and I'm not fond of using it because I prefer long-distance attacks.

"Guys!" I say. "Draw! Shiva says there's something there!" Selphie does so seeing as how both Squall and Zell are busy with the fight, and her face lights up after a few seconds.

"It's Siren! Got her!" She cries and I give her a thumbs up before looking back at the fiend.

Sword in one hand and a Blizzard in the other, I start hacking and blasting away at Elvoret alongside Zell and Squall, while Selphie stays back to heal us and get a hit or two in with her nunchaku once in a while. After a few more minutes and a demonstration of Zell's Limit Break, the bird gives one more cry and falls to the ground, where Zell gives it a poke with his foot before confirming that it is in fact dead.

"Squad B Captain?" That's Selphie, and there's Seifer… where he had just been watching all along. That… that… UGH! "I have new orders!" Selphie announces. "All SeeD members and SeeD candidates are to withdraw at 1900 hours. They are to assemble at the shore."

Seifer shots up, eyes wide in rage. "Withdraw!?" He roars. "There are still enemies around!" Selphie winces and covers her ears, backing away from him a few steps.

"I know, geez! I'm just a messenger!" She grumbles to no on in particular. Squall comes to stand beside her and looks at Seifer, nodding slightly.

"An order to withdraw takes priority." He agrees, sheathing his gunblade. "I don't want to miss the vessel."

Seifer scowls but stays silent, and that's when I pipe in, remembering a very important little piece. "What time did you say?" I ask and Selphie sighs loudly.

"Like I said…! All SeeD members and SeeD candidates are to withdraw at 1900 hours. Assemble at the shore!" She repeats loudly again and I check my wristwatch, then look back up at my teammates in alarm.

"1900 hours! …We only have 30 minutes to get there!" Zell groans to himself and Squall curses quietly, but Seifer only smirks at us and turns to run back to the elevator, pausing to give me a brief look.

"You got 30 minutes to get down to the shore!" He yells as he disappears. "Better run!"

Selphie groans even louder than Zell and runs towards him. "Heyyy! Waiiit for us!" She cries and Zell nods behind her.

"Who the hell does he think he is!?" He cries, tapping his foot impatiently as we wait for the mechanical transportation method to return back to us. It finally does so and we hop on it, eager to get the hell out of here. We finally land and run towards the automatic doors, and it's only then I remember the thing that's gonna come after us.

Oh hell, no.

"Hey, do you guys hear something?" I'm not bluffing; if you listen closely enough, you can hear the little clings the damned spider is making above us as it gets ready to jump down upon its unsuspecting prey, ready to devour us…

"You're imagining things," Squall says and we exit, breathing in the air of the wonderful outdoors.

"No, really!" I repeat, and I know I'm whining, but I really really _really _hate the spider and I am not in the mood to go running down through the town all the way to the ship. Who's idea was it, anyway, to make the beach so far away?

"Um, you guys, I think Kira's right!" Thank you Selphie but you are a little too late!

_Guess you just have to fight it,_ Shiva observes in my head, stating the obvious and I scowl at her as X-ATM092 drops down from the roof and right in front of us, its mechanical eyes whirling everywhere to assess which target would be a good kill to go for first.

"Cast Thunder on it!" I yell, knowing that enemies such as these (meaning mechanical) are especially weak to Thunder-based spells and attacks. Zell, Selphie and I start casting like mad but Squall just stands to the side, eyes closed and concentrating.

_He's summoning, _my ice friend explains and sure enough, a bolt of thunder crashes rights towards the robot spider and the electric bird Quetzacoatl of thunder appears and spreads its majestically yellow wings, giving a cry to the heavens above to send down a bolt of 1000 volts of electricity.

No, not really. All he does is give a cry to the sky and numerous thunder bolts appear, striking the robot. But he is majestic; I can see him so close and in person that I feel as if I can touch the yellow feathers on his wings. Of course I don't, because I really don't want to get shocked.

X-AT whatever falls after this, struggling to get up. "Let's get out of here!" Yells Zell and I want to hug him for the great idea but I don't, because if I don't get my ass out of here the robot is gonna come after me with a vengeance and stronger than ever.

That would make a good movie, huh? To get killed by a mechanical spider; practically every girl's (and some guy's) ultimate fear.

So we start busting our butts off as we run around the rock that Selphie and I jumped off seemingly ages ago and up the path leading to the overlook where we were discussing a very interesting topic on dreams when we hear a sound of CLANG-CLANG-CLAND approaching us at rapid speed.

And yep, you guessed it, Mr. Spider is there around the corner as well, struggling to get through the rocks. Zell's eyes resemble the size of dinner plates at an all-you-can-eat buffet as he watches it warily. "I thought we already busted that thing!?" He exclaims as we pause to observe it as well. Squall shakes his head as the spider finally breaks through, starting towards us hungrily.

Can machines be hungry?

"Forget it!" He yells over the annoying noise and already running down the road. "Let's go!"

So there we are, running down a mountain and towards the beach all the way on the other side with a mechanical spider I've dubbed as 'Mr. Spider' to make it easier to understand who I'm talking about chasing after us with this annoying and nerve-breaking CLANG-CLANG-CLANG sound and we can't battle it cause then we'd have to end up dead and me thinks there's no 'Restart' option here.

"KIRA! Hurry up!"

And did I mention I start rambling like crazy when I get freaked out? Cause yeah, that's what I'm doing right now.

_Kira, if you want to live, I suggest you pick up your pace! _Calls Shiva the Ice Queen in my head and I attempt to run faster seeing as how I've never been the best athlete, but I somehow manage to make it to the bridge along with the rest of my group.

For some funky reason, this is all somewhat easier than escaping from the spider in the game and I truthfully can't recall what I did to progress the story line safely, but when the spider jumps over us I have the strangest feeling to turn and slowly run back the other way.

"Guys! Turn and run the other way slowly until you hear it jump then run back to the beach again!"

Actually, I've just repeated what the nice little helpful voice inside my head said.

_Why, thank you. It's nice to be appreciated._

Oh. It's just Eriol. Huh. Guess he's helping me. Not something I have to think about right now.

The group follows my advice and we miraculously make it towards the city safe, with nice destructive Mr. Spider falling behind us and destroying the poor city as he goes. Hopefully, the residents here won't demand Garden to pay the damage, cause then it would be a very bad thing.

There are cars being crushed behind us and buildings being totaled, and soon we run through the Central Plaza where we were supposed to be safely waiting for orders, then the many allies we explored at the beginning of this. Selphie and Zell get an extra burst of speed once we're almost at the beach, leaving Squall and I to keep running for our lives. We do so and once we spot the beach, we get that extra burst of speed as well.

But Mr. Spider does as well, oh nooo.

I'm jumping over the cracks in the pavement beside Squall as the CLANG-CLANG-CLANG increases in speed behind us, spotting the nice, nice beach with the nice, nice boat there and we have Zell waving at us and Selphie screaming at us from inside the ship—

I suddenly have an urge to scream 'Honey, I'm hooommeee!' to them.

_You're almost there! One last stretch! _Cheers Shiva, acting like an inner cheerleader. Suuure, it's easy for her to say. She's not the one about to be made into a dinner for a robot.

I gain some extra speed over Squall and grab his wrist to tag him along with me, getting the energy whether from the sight of the ship, the fear of being killed by something with eight sharp legs, or maybe even Shiva giving me extra energy, but we hurl into Zell and drag him along inside with us where we topple over Selphie as the door clicks safely shut behind us.

I quickly get off the girl and apologize, listening to the sounds of Quistis blasting the hell out of our predator with a very cool machine gun located at the top of the ship. Now, why couldn't she have done that earlier?

"Well, took you long enough."

…

…

Him. The bastard that left us there, at the mercy of a robot. The bastard that left us there to save his own hide while being the Hyne-damned squad leader.

I do not care if that smirking Seifer Almasy is one of my best friends; I will not be help responsible for any damage I cause to him.

My eyes slowly lower themselves from the ceiling where I was mentally cheering on Quistis to look into the blue-green ones of Seifer. "You," I hiss, advancing closer. Huh, the guy actually looks worried there for a second. No matter. I'm still pissed.

"Seifer," I manage as calmly as I can. "Do you know that I am now officially scared of mechanical spiders?" I come even closer to his seat, cracking my knuckles threateningly – something I learned from Raijin. "And do you know that there is one person here that I reaaaallly want to hurt right now?" He smirks slightly at me and my eye twitches. "But I can't hurt him, because he is still my squad leader. So, I'll go for the next best thing."

I can feel everybody's eyes on us, even Quistis's, who has just walked in.

There's silence. Then…

"YOU BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING LEAVING US THERE LIKE THAT!!? DID YOU WANT US TO GET COMPLETELY TOTALED! I MEAN, SURE, I UNDERSTAND IF YOU WANT CHICKEN – I MEAN ZELL TO GET HURT, BUT YOU'RE OUR FRIGGING SQUAD LEADER AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LOOK AFTER US!" I pause for breath, thoroughly enjoying his shocked face.

"But no," I continue, more quietly this time. "We have no help from our squad leader, and even worse, he doesn't even pause to think about helping us!"

Shiva is practically throwing a parade inside my mind. _Go, girl! You tell him how it is! _I take another breath and turn to Quistis, who's staring at me, along with all my other companions.

"If you need me, I'll be outside."

And then I slowly march out as if anything ever happened. Don't you just love my mood swings? I don't. I'll probably leave off on a bad note with Seifer when he gets taken away by—

Yeah. Not a good thing to think about. I think enjoying this nice breeze as we sail back to Garden is much better. It's so quiet and peaceful here… you won't even think that a battle just took place at a city not far away.

"Hey."

…Oh no. I don't need to see him. Not right now. Not in a good mood, if you haven't noticed.

But I don't ignore him non-the-less and turn my eyes slightly to his face as he leans on the railing and stares out at the ocean, his cloak billowing slightly at his back in the wind.

"Yes, Seifer? Do you need something?"

…Especially when I had just screamed my head off at him. And very pissed at him. Very pissed actually to have half a mind to throw him into the ocean.

And he still needs something?

* * *

…and holy shizat I'm finally done. Tell me what you think, okay? 

And don't forget to press the awesome little button there that encourages me saying 'Review'! Until next time!


	6. Our New Lives

**Disclaimer: **Nuu, I don't own anything. Everything belongs to Squeenix. : )

**a/n: **Chapter Six Yay. I'd just like you guys to tell me if you want me to make the chapters about 10k long but update not as regularly, or the usual 2-5k?

And I still need Kira's Limit ideas!

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts

**Chapter Six  
**Our New Lives

You know, if it wasn't for the fact that I was ready to throw Seifer to the sharks below for some nice dinner, this would have made a pretty romantic scene. The sunset was starting on the horizon, casting bold colors across the sky and waters as it gradually dimmed. The waves at the sea told no tale of the battle that took place at its shores just minutes before, and the air no longer had the stench of death.

We were slowly but surely approaching the island of Balamb – our home. My home.

"I wonder how we did." I blink out of my thoughts at Seifer's voice, who's staring down at the waters as if they could solve every one of his problems without a cinch. Sighing heavily, I turn to watch alongside him.

"Poor boy," Shiva sympathizes in my head. "He's not going to pass, is he?"

I roll my eyes at her. "Have you been looking at memories again?" I tease and she winks at me.

"It's quite interesting to watch them. Better than TV," she remarks after a thoughtful pause. "Did you know I was in every one of those games of yours?"

I laugh, not quite recalling as to how I knew the information she stumbled upon in the first place. "Watch your ego there; don't let it explode." The ice-queen crosses her arms and pouts childishly at me.

"Hm," she murmurs, and a little imaginary birdie tells me that she's rummaging through my mind again. "Do you mind if I take a look further into our situation?"

I think over her question and frown both mentally and physically. "I'd rather you not," I decide slowly. "Not yet, at least," She shrugs.

"Whatever you want, then. Oh, and I suggest you get back to your friend there. He looks troubled."

I sneak a look at Seifer and immediately feel guilty at the many emotions passing on my companion's confused face. I realize that he must still be waiting for an answer to his question, so I raise and lower one shoulder before replying.

"Don't…" I start, but replay the words I was going to say in my head and decide to word them differently in fear of accidentally blurting out something he's not supposed to know. Hah, imagine his reaction if I went up to him and said 'Hey, you're not gonna be SeeD! Don't run off and become the Sorceress's Pet now!' then just toddled away, leaving him hella confused.

"Don't fully blame yourself," I finally voice, staring blankly at the island we're approaching. "Yes, you did a poor job as a leader, and I agree that I think you shouldn't have been made one." I can see a sad smirk grow on his face. "But I don't think you make a good leader in general; I guess it's just knowing you for four years now and understanding that you're not one to follow directions."

He shoots me a small glare, but I smile it off and continue. "Besides. Squally and I agreed to go with your plan towards the Communication Tower against better judgment, so just because Moody is in Cid's good books and I'm just not much of a trouble person anyways, you shouldn't get all the blame."

He smiles slightly at me and chuckles. "Wise words, kid." He comments jokingly and I cross my arms, huffing.

"I still think you did a poor job as leader, so just because I'm sticking up for your right now doesn't mean that I'll forgive you." I inform him, fully aware of the mocking undertone my voice has adapted. "I mean – leaving us with that spider!" My shoulders tense and I shudder. "Really; what were you thinking?"

Seifer's sheepish laugh carries over the wind as he grins. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about that." He mutters and I raise my eyes to his, my eyebrows going sky-high.

"You? Sorry?" I tease, leaning in closer, not noticing his flustered look and putting a hand to my cheek in mock horror. "The apocalypse is coming!" He shoots me a dark glare but I can still see the smile hovering on his lips.

"You're gonna trip like that," Seifer says and the next thing I know is that he's pushing me back as payback until I'm in danger of toppling over backwards to the metal ground. Of course, not being one to go down by myself, I grab onto the front of his white cloak and pull him down with me.

Cue the awkwardness. I really am idiot, aren't I?

"Hey! You guys okay in there!?" I raise my head slightly and Seifer raises his from where it was hovering just inches above mine to look at the stairs leading down to the cabin, only to see Zell staring at us, his eyes zipping to and fro.

He looks like he doesn't know whether to laugh or to hurl; maybe both? "Um, I'll just be going now…" I can see him barely containing his giggles as he starts to descend and I narrow my eyes, attempting to look as menacing as one can when lying with Seifer on top of you.

"Zell," I say and he tenses, turning slightly to face me. "Zell. You better not be going off to tell anybody about this, or I swear that what happened last week at the library will no longer stay a secret." I know it's a low blow, but I _really _don't want anyone to know about the weird situation Seifer and I are currently in.

The tattooed blonde's eyes widen in the usual comic-styled horror. "You wouldn't!" He gasps, pointing a finger at me. I clear my throat dramatically.

"It was a wonderful day at Garden when a boy by the name of Zell Dincht was cruising through the library, spying on his crush from behind some bookshelves…" His eyes widen in horror at almost every word I say until he finally hangs in his head in defeat, a blush quickly blossoming across his face.

"Fine! Fine!" He quickly agrees, starting to sulk back down the stairs. "Just DON'T mention that accident again; please!" I nod happily at his back as he disappears from my view.

"So… what did he do?"

Oh. Right. I'm still in that awkward situation. I don't know whether you'll see this as awkward or not, but for me it's one of the most embarrassing things ever (for now).

Remember how I mentioned pulling blondie here down with me? Well, it seems that his training has chosen a mighty good time to kick in and instead of falling flat on his face beside me (which was what I intended him to do) his arms secured his fall by bracing on either side of me. His legs somehow got tangled with mine, leaving us with one of his legs in between mine and the other tangled around one of mine.

Did I mention just how much I hate awkward situations? Well, if you haven't, then I'm saying so now.

My eye twitches as Seifer smirks down to me, but I still manage to notice with some satisfaction the pink on his cheeks. "Rather," I counter his question. "Why are we still in this position?"

Seifer pretends to think for a while, propping himself onto one of his elbows to make himself more comfortable. "Because this is comfortable?" He suggest cockily and I have the urge to bash him over the head with something very heavy.

"Comfy for you, maybe." I reply, getting more annoyed by the second. "Now get off, please." Instead of doing what I so kindly ask of him, Seifer instead leans down closer to me until I can see his eyes clearly.

Too clearly for my liking.

"No," he breathes, the smirk still planted firmly on his face. Damn it, I'm about ready to punch him straight out of this boat…

"Or kiss him, maybe?" Shiva suggests innocently, munching on a tub of popcorn on a fluffy coach she pulled out of nowhere. She giggles when I send her the darkest look I can muster. "My! This is much better than soap operas!" She remarks and I rudely cut her off from our connection, feeling an annoyed twinge before ignoring it.

"Seifer, I'm warning you. Get the hell off me before I kick you off to who-knows-where." He shrugs a little reluctantly but gets off at the frigid tone in my voice, instead going to sit on the floor, one arm propped up by his leg.

I sit up as well, but because of the annoying skirt I have to wear on the damned mission, my thoughts of sitting cross-legged are foiled and instead I have to settle for sitting with my legs pressed into the hard iron floor.

Wonderful.

"You do know that I like you, right?"

**That was oddly straight-forward. **

"As in… more than friends?" He nods slightly and I sigh. "Yeah. You kind of made that shown last week." He shifts uncomfortably, avoiding looking straight at me.

"You…" He starts but trails off. "Have you thought about what I said?"

Yes. No? Kind of. I don't want to think about it because I already know my answer.

I barely nod, staring straight ahead at the wall blankly. "I suppose you could say that." It's then that I notice that we're only minutes away from the Balamb docks so I stand up and dust myself off, pausing on my way back to the cabin to shoot Seifer a look, who's still sitting on the floor, staring at it emotionlessly.

"Listen…" I start uncertainly, but put a hand lightly on his shoulder, ignoring how he tenses up under my touch. "At the graduation ball tonight. Can you meet me by the westward balcony at 2100?" He remains silent but I take it as a yes and start to leave, stopping by the stairs once more.

"But Seifer…" He turns to me slightly at the mention of his name and I smile at him. "I do like you. A lot."

Zell shoots me a few weird looks as I step into the room but I ignore them, instead settling to sit beside an impatient Selphie. "I wonder how I did…" she mutters and I raise an eyebrow.

"Damn, is everybody really that worried about passing?" I question Shiva, unbinding our link. She stays silent for a little while, fuming, before answering.

"I believe that the main focus of a large majority of the Garden students strive to be SeeDs," she replies, curling some of her hair around her finger in boredom. "I really don't see the point of it."

"Well… lessee. If I remember correctly, Edea and Cid created the SeeDs to fight the Sorceress, didn't they?" Shiva shoots me a look.

"I wouldn't know," she says, and I sigh.

"Are you mad?" When she stays quiet, I try poking at her a little. "Come on. You know I didn't mean anything when I cut you off… it's just that I was, uh, embarrassed." A tinge of red colors my cheeks at the thought, and Shiva immediately goes back to her normal, peppy self.

"Aw!" She squeals loudly. "So you do have a crush on him!" She sighs pleasantly, and I swear she's muttering about wedding plans. My face instantly goes red.

"I don't like him that much!" I cry out loud when she mentions something that sounds strangely like 'children'. Realizing that I had called it out loud, my face goes even redder (if that's possible) and I sink further into my seat, hoping to avoid the bizarre looks my comrades are sending me.

"Care to elaborate exactly who you are talking about?" My head slowly rotates to Zell's direction as if in some drama movie, and I narrow my eyes the best I can without having them painfully squeeze together.

"Zell," I threaten, but the smirk on his face grows larger and larger. _One, two…_

"Oh! I believe I know who you are talking about!" He shakes his head and mockingly sighs. "Really Kira, I thought you had better taste in guys. I mean, Sei--!"

SNAP.

"ZELL DINCHT YOU WILL SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!" I screech at him, catapulting myself off the seat to the one across of me where the unfortunate blond is sitting, about to get a death pummeling.

"Well, everyone, we'll be…huh?"

All of our heads (except Zell's) snap to the entrance as Xu enters with some news, only to stop at the scene before her.

For one, Selphie has now collapsed in a fit of giggles to her side on the floor, attempting to prevent tears of mirth from escape her eyes. Second, Squall's fingers are twitching dangerously close towards the gunblade resting idly by the wall, and even Quistis has her shoulders shaking in silent laughter, a hand covering her mouth.

Then, of course, there's Zell and I. His attempt to escape has proven to be futile, causing his legs to hang off the one-man seat, the rest of his body still on the blue cushion being pressed into it by non-other than me. One of my hands is wound against his neck in a choke-hold and the other is upon his blond head, pressing his face down further.

"What the hell is going on?"

No, of course it's not Xu; it's actually a Seifer Almasy who has just come down to find his team acting like immature idiots. His eyes sweep over the room in annoyance, stopping at the sight of Zell and me, and his eye brows shoot up an inch.

"Chicken-wuss?" He asks in amusement and I loosen my hold on Zell, feeling his struggle to reply. "Kira?" His voice sounds even more amused and I feel heat spread on my face at the embarrassment of the absurd situation.

"It was his fault!" I blurt out the first thing that comes to my head, Shiva's sarcastic voice echoing in my mind. Now more embarrassed than annoyed at Zell, I jump off to stand by Selphie in one of the corners, who now looks as if she may burst into laughter again at any second. Even Squall is starting to stare at us in good humor, probably relaxing at the prospect of nearing Garden.

Xu's sigh snaps us out of our thoughts as she shakes her head in small wonder. "And you're supposed to be SeeD candidates," she murmurs before looking back towards us. "We'll be docking at Balamb any minute now. Please collect any belongings you may have and be ready to leave for Garden." She salutes us and we copy the action, relaxing when we feel the submarine shudder and stop at the docks.

"Honey, I'm hooommmeee!" I all but holler once we step off onto dry land, earning quite a few chortles and odd looks from passer-bys as I do so. "But really!" I continue, doing a spin to face my comrades and locking my hands behind my back. "Isn't it wonderful to be back? I'm gonna get a nice bubble bath, some pie, hot dogs and tea, then a nap!"

I continue ranting as we wait for Quistis to inform us of our next orders once she comes to land, Selphie nodding once in a while, agreeing with my plans while Zell looks lost in La-La-Land at the mention of hot dogs.

"Where's Seifer?" Quistis inquires as she and Xu fill out beside us. We shrug in answer and she frowns. "Well, no matter. Just be back at Garden by sundown." We salute her and she smiles back before leaving with Xu, chatting about one thing or another animatedly.

"You know, my Ma lives just around the corner here. We could visit her for some hot dogs," pipes up Zell as we walk and Squall gives an exasperated sigh.

"We don't that the time," he says blankly, walking ahead of us. Since Zell looks gloomy at being turned down and I want to make up for what I did back at the ship, I lean over to him.

"Actually," I murmur, checking to see if Squally is out of hearing range. "We have three hours to waste. Squally-pooh there just want to grow up as an orange brick wall." Zell chuckles at that and gives me a grin, and I know that I am forgiven.

"Heeeyyy, isn't that our car?" I follow Selphie's line of sight and groan as a yellow Garden car caroms down the paved road of Balamb, Seifer's hand cockily waving back at us.

"Aw, there goes Mr. Ego again!" Zell exclaims beside me, shaking a clenched fist at the disappearing vehicle.

"Might as well walk it," Squall suggests, sounding a tad bit tired at the idea. Selphie, Zell and I sigh simultaneously as we start trudging grudgingly towards the over-sized icecream cone look-alike that is Balamb Garden.

---

---

"And, and then we found him amongst Raijin's plushies, drool dribbling from his mouth at the Sleep spell I cast at him!" The three of us giggled madly as I continued to tell tales of Seifer's younger days as revenge for hijacking the car.

"I even threatened him a few days before I did so if he didn't stop training non-stop – but then he still had the murderous glint in his eyes whenever he looked at me after waking up!" I exclaimed, shooting a Bite Bug that was poised above me, ready to strike. We were almost at the Garden gates by now, and Squall was a few paces ahead of us once again, antsy to get back.

"Hey! Let's hear some embarrassing stories from you, Squally!" He ignores the question, and I smile widely. Oh, I'll get you yet…

"Ahhhh! We're finally back" Cries Zell, stretching out his sore muscles. "Well, I'm going to head to the cafeteria and wait for the results." He waves at us and Selphie does so as well, following after him to her dormitory.

As soon as we enter, Squall hurries off without a good-bye, leaving me alone with nothing to do. Scratching my head in thought, I shrug to myself and decide to take a shower, since I doubt I'll have enough time for a bubble bath.

Humming some random song to myself, I head off to my room, waving at a few passing by people whom I recognize. Some stop and wish me good luck with passing the Field Exam, and I smile and thank them.

"Are you so sure of passing into SeeD?" I turn at the familiar voice, almost tripping over my two feet when I find Eriol walking calmly beside me, hands in the pockets of the standard Garden uniform.

"I mean," he continues, pushing up his gold-rimmed glasses further up his nose. "I am certain you did well, but you seem to be too over-confident."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stop by one of the benches circling the center of our school and scowl down at him. "Did you just come here to put my spirits down?" I ask snottily and he smiles at me.

"Of course not." Eriol replies, leaning against the black railing of the bench and trailing his fingers on it. "I've come to tell you the outcome of what you're planning to do." When I give him a confused look, he sighs. "You can't convince Seifer Almasy against joining the Sorceress; it's been his dream and his destiny."

…Wait a sec. "How do you know of that?" I ask, plopping myself down and peering curiously at him.

"I can access your mind quite easily," he cheekily replies again, smiling non-stop.

I stare at him. Then stare at him some more. "Come again?"

Eriol blows his black bangs out of his eyes and mutters something I can't hear. "Since I was the one responsible for bringing you here, I am able to dive into your mind and thoughts quite easily. And since it is not a sort of any spell, you can't block it."

"But… but…" I splutter, astounded at his audacity. "But that's just plain rude! And what about privacy!?"

"Geez," Eriol grumbles, actually looking offended. "It's not I'll actually peep into there every minute of my day… I'll just be stopping by to give you some help when you need it." Ugh, he's making my head sound like a bus stop. Tickets are on sale now; only 5 gil ladies and gentlemen!

"Why are you here right now, then?" I ask and his face lights up before he pulls out a… little glowing light? The hell?

"The hell?" I voice, staring at it as it wobbles in his hands, resembling icky jello. Eriol just rolls his eyes and sticks it for me to take. I do so cautiously, examining it for a few seconds before poking at it in interest.

'It's your Limit Break!" He announces brightly and I give him a 'you're kcoo-kcoo aren't you?' look to which he just rolls his eyes once again in a habit that strangely reminds me of me.

"Go on; bring it up to your head." He instructs and I follow, wincing when a light flashes from it and a feeling a liquid spreading through my brain appears. "Now, all you have to do is wait for the right moment when it'll activate. You'll know when that happens if your brain gets the same feeling as what happened right now." He continues explaining, and I touch my head curiously as the coldness slowly disappears.

"So… what exactly does it do?" Eriol just shakes his head and gives me a smile that practically screams 'you'll have to find out on your own!' before giving me a small salute and dissolving into thin air in a flash of sparkles. I stare blankly at where he was just seconds ago before turning to Shiva for advice.

"I see nothing wrong with it," she says, mentally prodding around my mind. "I say we can trust him."

"But what if he gave me a suicidal move?" I say as the thought strikes me. "I wouldn't put it past him to do that, you know!" The ice queen just chuckles and pats me on the head. Really, she's treating me like a child, isn't she?

"I think he actually cares about you enough to look out for your safety," she suggests after a few minutes of me sitting in silence, playing with some of the water from the little ditch-like thing going around the elevator behind me.

"Right," I reply sarcastically, drawing little circles in the liquid out of boredom. "He only cares because I'm his little lab rat." Shiva shakes her head.

"Oh no. I believe he's starting to worry about you like a person."

"He's a machine," I say back blandly and she gives a frustrated whine.

"He was a machine, dear. He said it himself when you first met him: he's now an essence." I shrug to her and stand up, shaking my hand and sending droplets everywhere.

"Still the same thing, isn't it?" Shiva freezes up in my head, and I do as well. "…Aren't you guys essences as well, though?" She nods slightly at me and my eyes widen in realization. "Oh my god, I'm sorry! I didn't think they were the same!"

Shiva waves her hand at me dismissively. "We are different. Unlike us GFs, you are unable to physically summon him as you can with me. However, he has the same vibe as some of us so I suggest you try asking him about it next time you meet him."

"Uh, okay. And are you sure you're not mad about that remark?" I ask uncertainly and she smiles a little sadly at me.

"You are still young," she replies. "You make many mistakes. As a human, you achieve many faults. It is simply part of your nature." I smile gratefully at her.

"Thanks." I laugh a little. "You're acting like a mother, you know that?" Shiva giggles with me.

"You mean like that Zell boy?" I shake my head in answer.

"No. He's more like… an overprotective brother to me." She nods in agreement and I lean back on the bench, relaxing.

"Wasn't I supposed to take a shower?" I ask myself aloud after a few minutes of doing nothing, scaring the same kid from before we set off to Dollet. He shoots me a freaky look and picks up the pace in his running. I shrug to myself, having accepted my weirdness a long time ago.

Wait. That's not really like me at all!

"Ah, yeah. I forgot to mention that," Shiva coughs sheepishly as I wonder about what's happening to my train of thought. "You see," she continues explaining and I listen attentively. "Once a GF is junctioned and bonded with the person they are residing with, the traits of the Guardian may pass through their link and onto the person…"

I frown, going over the new information she presented me with. "So you're saying that that's why I was having those mood swings earlier?" She nods.

"I'm sorry about those," she apologizes, hanging her head slightly. "There aren't many who understand the bond formed between the two beings fully, but it seems that the personalities of both – or maybe even more than one, if a person has other Guardians – mix for the first few days of Junctioning, causing some disturbance to the brain and causing it to malfunction."

I wince, unwanted images at the over-descriptive words coming to my mind. "You didn't have to explain it that fully," I mutter to her, putting a hand up to my head and massaging it in comfort. "Ever hear of 'too much information'?" I tease and she laughs brightly.

"Now you see, that part is fully you. Be happy that you're such a sarcastic person," she winks cheekily as I sent her a light glare.

"But it seems that your peppiness is mixing with me?" I finish and she nods, nervously playing with the decorations in her hair. "So… if I get some GF like Siren I would inherit her whininess?"

Shiva shakes her head. "Not quite. You see, this is only going to be for a few days; at least until your mind gets used to mine. Then you'll be back to your normal self, just with a little personality change where, like you said in your example, you would be a little more happier – a trait that you get from me." I nod slowly in understanding.

"Well, as long as I don't become some cheerleader type, I'm fine with that!" I tell her, swinging my legs childishly to and fro. "But how do I know when I'm me and when I'm affected by you?"

"You wouldn't," Shiva states curtly. "Like I said, our personalities are mixing. Imagine red and yellow: while separate, you can tell which is which. But when they mix together, they'll form a new color, where you won't be able to decipher the red or the yellow."

"You have very interesting examples," I remark. "But I actually get that."

"Great!" She cheers, pumping her fist into the air. "Now I won't have to explain anything when you suddenly get all angst on me or something with a new GF."

I laugh, but whole-heartedly agree with her.

_"All students who participated in today's SeeD Field Exam, please report to the second floor hallway. I repeat: all students who participated in today's Field Exam please report to the 2nd floor hallway."_

"Well, that's us!" I state cheerily, jumping up and starting to head towards the elevator. "I hope I passed," I say to no one.

_Oh, don't worry, you will._

I blink as Eriol's voice flashes on in my head. _I thought you said that I was being too confident?_

…_You were. Everyone once in a while needs a reality check. _

I snort, but find his reasoning true. _So how do you know I'll pass?_

_I don't. But I have a feeling you will._

_Did you mess with something? Cause if you did--!_ I growl lowly in my throat, pressing the necessary buttons to head up.

_I'm innocent here. Just wait until the results, and we'll see. …And no. You can't summon me, but you can draw information and …other stuff if I decide to let you._

_Oh. Right. Mind-reading._

_Yep. Now good luck and don't be so nervous._

I head through the automatic doors and look around at the ten or so students gathered already in the hallway, a nervous silence filling the room. Some are wishing each other good luck as I try to find Zell, Selphie, or even Squall (I doubt Seifer is here yet), peering corner to corner.

"Kira! Over here!"

I wave back at Zell who's standing with both Squall and Selphie some ways off, grinning nervously at me. "Hiya!" I greet as I approach them, noticing how Selphie is nervously biting at her nails. I start to reassure her, but it's then that the last few students rush in, followed closely by an annoyed Garden Faculty, who's carrying a list in his hands.

Coughing to get attention, he peers at it in slight curiosity. "Dincht… Zell Dincht." He says dryly and Zell stares openly at him for a few seconds before jumping in the air and pumping his fist.

"YEEEEAAAHHHHH!!" He yells, turning towards Selphie and I, giving us a large bear hug before running down to the elevator. "I'll see you later!"

The rest of us look back at the faculty, who's staring at the display with distaste before reading back down the list. "Selphie Tilmitt." Selphie lets out a loud squeal and glomps an unfortunate Squall beside her before rushing down the hallway after Zell.

"Squall… Squall from Squad B." A shadow of a smile appears on the brunette's face and I give his shoulder a squeeze, grinning, before he walks calmly down the hall, following my two friends.

If I remember correctly, there was also Nida who passed… I cross my fingers behind my back. Did I fail?

"…Kira Lanning."

I gape at the guy before letting out an excited yell, quickly glomping the Garden Faculty on my way to the elevator, a faint name echoing behind me. Hurriedly pushing the correct buttons needed to go the third floor, I grin happily at Nida who's wearing a mirroring grin on his face as he comes up beside me. Together, we wait impatiently as we slowly arrive at Headmaster's Cid office, who's looking over us with a proud smile on his face.

"Welcome to SeeD!" He announces as Nida and I step into line, him beside Zell and I near Squall. "Welcome to SeeD, cadets – welcome to your new lives as newly-appointed elites!"

* * *

a/n: Done this one. : ) On the next chapter we have the appearance of Rinoa, more on the situation between Kira and Seifer, and what may be the last peaceful time they'll have together!

Review and tell me what you think!


	7. In This Moonlit Night

**Disclaimer: **Nuu, I don't own anything. Everything belongs to Squeenix. : )  
**a/n: **Chapter Seven is here. I've nothing to say, except to thank my reviewers for reading this and encouraging me. It helps – a lot.

**One Reviewer has suggested a Limit Break for Miss Kira Lanning. I quote, from Fuhrer Moogle:**  
_I had an idea that Kira could multiply herself and make like a circle around the enemy, and each replica of herself could have her two guns, and all of them shoot at the enemy, and then as a finisher (like Renzokuken), have her do some kind of B.A. sword slash thing..._  
**Please notify me if you vote for the idea, if you have your own, or if you don't like it. I will be posting my Limit Break idea when I get one. xD;**

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts , Other

**Chapter Seven**  
In This Moonlit Night—  
**Part One**

"As a SeeD, you will be dispatched all over the world to complete missions sent to us. Whether it be guarding, hit and run, or even assassination – you will finish it to the best of your abilities. Your salary will be added to your account depending on your rank." Cid pauses and his eyes shift to every one of us. "But that is not the true meaning of SeeD. When the time comes…"

"Headmaster," the nearby Garden Faculty who has been present throughout the whole thing interrupts. "The meeting will be starting soon." He turns to us stiffly. "What you do on your missions will affect Garden's status. Follow orders, do not question them, and complete your tasks. Is that what you wanted to say, Headmaster?" Cid looks oddly disgusted at the words of his subordinate, but nods his head and begins shuffling through various papers on his desk before pulling out five thin papers with our names written on them.

"Your battle reports," he explains as he walks forward and hands us one in turn, leaning over to whisper words of advice and such. "I am looking forward to the Garden Festival this year," I hear him whisper to Selphie who nods enthusiastically as she takes it. He finishes moving down the line, coming to me with only one paper left in his hands and smiles.

"You've made many friends here," he says quietly as so the others won't have a chance of hearing. "Try not to let your stubbornness and pride be the reasons to draw them away from you." I nod slightly, and Shiva agrees with his words in my head. I salute as the others do and Cid gives us another smile.

"That is all for your SeeD briefing. Enjoy your ingratiation party." My companions relax and head for the elevator to wait in the hall for the go-ahead to give the SeeD speech in front of our class while I stop at the doors and turn slightly to face my Headmaster, nothing how tired he looks sitting at his desk going over numerous papers with pen in hand.

"Headmaster," I call faintly and he gives me a curious look, the pen in his hand pausing in mid-air. "The true mission of SeeD…" I continue, starting to space out as Eriol's encouraging voice rebounds in my mind. "The true mission of SeeD is not to be the world's mercenary force, is it? It's made to fight one enemy…"

Cid gives me a calculating look and the Garden Faculty takes a threatening step forward. Seeing so, I smile a little sadly and shut the oak doors easily behind me.

---

---

"That girl," the man's head turned at the cold tone of voice in his familiar, who was staring at the space where the blond newly-appointed SeeD had just been. "What does she know?"

The Headmaster shook his head. "No," he said in answer to the unspoken question. "Please go and inform NORG that I will be meeting with him in five minutes." The hooded man nodded and left the room quietly, the mechanism of the elevator sounding a few moments later.

Inside, Cid Kramer stared into space before heading over to a metal cabinet where he pulled out a tan file out of many more. Opening it, he stared at the picture of seventeen-year-old Kira smiling back at him pleasantly, her hair pulled into a high ponytail and side bangs tucked behind her ears in small braids. Grey eyes looked back at him happily, not a spark of betrayal in her eyes.

The bold letters on top read _Kira Alexandra Lanning_.

Cid continued leafing through the folder, eyes skimming the small text.

_Name : Kira Alexandra Lanning_

_Age : Seventeen_

_DOB : 06/20/90_

_Height : 5'4_

_Weight : Undisclosed_

_Family : Unknown_

_Current Residence : Balamb Garden_

The balding man frowned as the rather short bio came to an end, the next few pages deciphering her abilities with a weapon and class marks. Closing it with a sigh, he placed it back amongst other student records in frustration. Massaging his temples, he looked towards the sky outside of his window in confusion.

There was no information he already did knot know. But how did she understand and see so much, with only four years at Garden? Her eyes… when she left, her eyes held an insight too deep for his liking.

---

---

_**Conduct : 70**_

_**Judgment : 95**_

_**Attack : 50**_

_**Spirit : 95**_

_**Attitude : 100**_

"Hm. I don't think you did too bad," remarks Shiva as I read over my Battle Report, the big '8' on the corner making my heart lift even more. "You could have upped the Attack one and tried more on Conduct, but overall this looks good."

Silently agreeing with her, I exit the trusty elevator that gets used way too many times every day and join the others SeeDs.

"SeeD, SeeD, SeeeeD!" Selphie's chants are contagious as I wait patiently for the faculty to let us in. She doesn't seem particularly in this world right now so deciding to let her be in her own fantasy for a while, I trod over to Zell, who's pacing up and down happily.

"SeeD, I made it onto SeeD…" he laughs to himself. "Wait 'til Ma hears about this! She'll be so proud!" Giggling to myself and deciding to not interrupt him either, I walk over to Squall who's leaning on the railing.

"I told you we'd have no problem getting into SeeD!" I tell him, not actually remembering whether I had done so before as I lean against the banister and stare down towards the lower level.

Squall shrugs and keeps quiet. "Well, you don't talk much, do you?" I say dryly, repeating the words I've told him many times before over the years. A hint of a smirk plays on his face and my smiles grows wider.

"Squally!" I announce, pumping a fist into the air in a Shiva fashion. "I am getting to you, aren't I? Finally, after all these years, huh?" Leonhart ignores me but I continue grinning, knowing that I am _so _right.

"You attention, please." The Garden man waits while we manage to calm ourselves down. "As a newly appointed SeeD, you are expected to present a speech in front of your classmates. Please proceed through to your classrooms." He leaves by Mr. Elevator and we shuffle our way forward.

The students clap as we enter, and Squall looks like he'd rather be anywhere but here while both Selphie and Zell stare at their feet in embarrassment. Nida and I both grin, a light pink coloring my cheeks at the attention.

"Congratulations!!" Raijin crushes me in a hug and I awkwardly pat his back while Fuujin just smiles at me. I notice that there is one member of their posse missing and frown when the burly teenager lets go of me.

"Where's Seifer?" I question when the students start to disperse one by one to their classrooms. Fuujin looks uncomfortably to Raijin, who just shrugs and scratches his head sheepishly in turn.

"He said he had to go, ya know?" He replies and I blink slightly for a few seconds. "Oh." The whisper escapes my mouth and I stare ahead blankly. "If you see him, tell him I'm still going to be waiting like we planned… you know, just in case." I smile at them and shake off the feeling of disappointment washing over me before I leave through the automatic doors nearby.

Squall's speech is barely a minute long where he just gives us a cold look before nodding and saying a curt "thank you" then leaving the small stage. Zell stares at the audience for a few minutes blankly, then starts rambling resulting in him having to be dragged off the podium. Selphie's is short as well since she doesn't really know anyone here, advertising the Garden Festival while she does so.

Nida talks for a few minutes before smiling and leaving the stage to me, where I just mention a few things before thanking the people who I've thought have helped me. When we are finished the students clap politely and congratulate us some more before turning back to their businesses.

Later than night, I get awakened by Zell from my short nap from where he is yelling at my door telling me to get up and get dressed for the party. I open the door grudgingly, giving him a glare to which he just replies with a "how do I look?".

"You look adorable!" I manage a squeal, awakening from my drowsiness by the sight of Zell dressed up in some nice black slacks and a black, red, gold and blue top with some medals dangling from chains.

Said blond grins proudly and does a 360 spin before turning to look back at me. "You should get dressed as well," he advises. "Your SeeD uniform should have been delivered to your room." I shrug and do so as he waits politely at my small living room/dining room. Karen had some huge test to study for in the library so when I first got here after my speech she gave me a huge glomp and a stock of spells she collected as a present before apologizing and rushing off downstairs.

I am not going to ask her where she got the spells, but I have a suspicion that she is uber-strong for someone a year younger me, if her spells are anything to go by. There are roughly ten of mid-level spells such as Blizzara and Cura, and a few third-level attack and life spells including some Thundagas and even a few Curagas.

She winked when she handed me a small stock of Aura and Holy spells, making me promise to never tell anyone where I got them due to the fact that everybody knew those spells were not on the Balamb continent but across the ocean. When I asked how the hell she managed to get over there, she just threw me a large smile and hurried off.

I find the Garden SeeD uniform very to my tastes, because one: the skirt is almost knee-length and even though it prevents much movement, I don't have to worry about it flying up or getting in the way and two: there are many sparkly chains hanging around on the top.

For example, there are these three chains of various lengths circling the collar, and then some hanging over my heart and going all the way down to my waist. I don't know why they're there or if it's just for decoration, but I love it.

I quickly get changed and after debating for a few seconds, strap my belt with my guns to my waist and untie my hair from its ponytails, letting it hang freely down. Smirking at my reflection, I hang my past Garden uniform in my closet and exit my bedroom.

"Weeeellll, what do you think of this?" I giggle as I come out, doing a copy of Zell from earlier as he lets out a mock whistle. I suddenly feel like this is some sort of prom I wanted back when I was little – minus the expensive limos and lacy dresses.

"As your adoptive brother, it will be my job to keep all they guys away from you," he says sternly but I detect the joking undertone his voice has. I raise my eyebrows and lock the dorm door behind me as we start to head down to the large gym our Garden houses.

"That includes Seifer," Zell continues and I laugh guiltily.

"Actually… I'm kind of supposed to meet him there…" My companion shoots me an accusing look.

"Is he your date?"

I feel heat rushing to my cheeks at the prospect. "No! Not quite...um, can we change the subject please?" I ask meekly. Zell inhales then exhales deeply.

"It's not my choice as to who you decide to like," he says, pausing to frown at me slightly as we make it to the doors of the decorated gym, where I can hear music seeping outside. "But I will warn you: be careful around Seifer. I know perfectly well that you've known him for as long as you have known me, but I still don't like the looks of him."

I smile gratefully. "Since when have you been so wise?" I tease and Zell flushes slightly. "But really – I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern, but the warning is not needed." He shrugs but opens the door by the golden handle and we step inside, immediately swept up by the flowing music and the sight before us.

Have you ever imagined yourself in a glorious castle, where a ball is taking place in the grand room? The women are dressed up in fancy dresses of all colors and shades, masks covering their faces as they smile at their partner, while the men are clad in black suits? There are musicians at the corner playing a lovely tune, and the sky overhead is shining brightly, full of a million twinkling stars?

This is what our gym-turned-ballroom looks like.

"Wow," I breathe, overwhelmed by the whole fairy-tale appearance of it all. A catchy tune is bouncing from wall to wall, and I vaguely recognize it as The Waltz of the Moon. The glass panels that serve as our roof open up to a dark night, where I know fireworks will soon light up the sky.

"Zell! Kira!" Selphie's voice yells to us and Zell dodges behind a nearby column, going pale in the face. I stare after him for a few seconds before looking at Selphie, who has just come up beside me, panting slightly.

"Do you want to join the Festival Committee?" She asks as soon as she regains her breath, eyes sparkling in hope. I mull it over in my thoughts for a few seconds before shrugging and grabbing a drink from a passing-by waitress.

"Sure!" I reply, smiling. "It'll be fun." Selphie's smile gets wider and she gives me a huge hug before grinning at me. "I'll inform you of the plans later!"

Zell steps back out into the open once she is gone, a weird look on his face. "You're dead, you know that?" He deadpans, staring after the curly-haired brunette and I laugh.

"Oh, be quiet. I'm sure I'll enjoy it." Waving him off, I nodded slyly at the direction of the dance floor. "Go and have some fun; dance and enjoy the night." Zell sighs and scratches his head before agreeing and running off, probably towards the buffet table.

"Or maybe stuff yourself with hot dogs…" I murmur at his retreating back, taking a sip from my drink. I quickly spit it back out and growl at it. "Ew, what the hell is this stuff?" Dumping it into a nearby unfortunate plant, I watch as a girl in a short dress sweeps Squall onto the dance floor, the latter stumbling like a fool.

A smile plays on my face as Rinoa places one of his hands on her waist and the other entwining with hers, trying to get him to dance correctly.

"Never thought he'd be the one to dance."

I jump at the voice to my right, but only find Seifer leaning against the same column Zell had been hiding behind. He gives me a small smirk as we continue watching the couple as they turn from looking idiotic to actually looking somewhat graceful.

"You weren't there for the speeches," I comment after a moment of silence. Seifer shrugs.

"Had to report to the disciplinary room." He explains and I shoot a curious look at him.

"What are you doing here, then?" I ask.

"Sneaked out."

"Oh."

He suddenly takes me by the hand and leads me to the dance floor, where we somehow manage to get through the already-dancing couples without many looks. Seifer isn't what I would call the best dancing partner, but I still enjoy the dance anyways. We sweep by Squall and Rinoa who don't notice us, probably too busy either trying to not to stumble or looking into each other's eyes. I catch Seifer's quick glance at the couple, mainly Rinoa, but he visibly shakes it off before turning his attention back to me.

The music echoes loudly across the room as I replay the steps I've been taught inside my head, somehow managing to keep up an appearance of me knowing what I'm doing. We stop once the music and lights dim, the fireworks appearing in beautiful shapes above us. I cast a quick glance at them but otherwise ignore them, opting to stare at the floor as Seifer does the same.

He leads me off after the display is over and we head back over to where we had been before, out of breath. "Thanks," I finally say after a few minutes of quiet between us, not exactly knowing for what I am grateful for but Seifer nods non-the-less.

There's more silence between us and Seifer finally sighs. "So you made it into SeeD," he states, bringing our conversation back into place, and I stare emotionlessly at the floor.

"Yeah." More silence. "I'm sorry you didn't. I know how much you wanted to." My blond companion shrugs at me.

"That Xu woman was ranting about me being a bad leader." His smirk is bittersweet. "She said that I'd never be a SeeD."

"You never will if you don't continue on trying." His eyebrows go up at my statement and I shift from one foot to the other, the awkwardness finally catching up with the both of us.

"…Don't get yourself killed out there." I tense at the words and hang my head slightly, now staring at my feet instead of the polished floor.

"You don't trust me?" I ask and I hear Seifer mutter something beside me before I notice him looking at the clock across of us out of the corners of my eyes.

"It's ten o'clock." He states and I look towards it with him, watching as the golden seconds hand moves forward.

"So it is." I reply blankly, feeling a strange calmness wash over me. Seeing as there is nothing left for me to do or see here even though this party was made for the SeeDs and I am one of those, I sigh and grab Seifer by the wrist. "Come on; it's too loud here."

And as we slowly move through the shadows of the ballroom dance floor, couples spinning obliviously at the center, and Seifer's fingers unclasp mine from his hand only to secure them with his, I realize with a churning feeling in my stomach that my feelings for the my blond companion go beyond what friends should ever feel for each other.

The 'calm before the storm' feeling does not disappear as we make our way towards the Training Center.

* * *

…

Tell me what you think, and please don't forget to vote and review. As a side-note, I decided I won't be doing the little 'next chapter' things due to the fact that they limit as to what I can write.

Until next time.


	8. I Understand I'll Say GoodBye

**Disclaimer: **Nuu, I don't own anything. Everything belongs to Squeenix. : )

**a/n: **OH YEAH BABY SUMMER BREAK IS HERE. Nuthing else to say.

_Italics _– Past , Flashbacks , Thoughts , Eriol-Kira

**Chapter Eight**  
—I Understand I'll Say Good-Bye  
**Part Two**

_Slash-slash bang-bang-bang-thud._

The rhythm trails after us as we make our way through the tropical Training Center with unpleasant silence between us, the only noise coming from our weapons as we slowly but surely deplete the Center of its monster population.

_Slash-slash bang-bang-bang-thud-thud._

"Well, aren't you two sociable," My icy GF comments wryly, having been silent throughout out the whole ordeal. I send her a glare, but silently agree with the statement, shooting another Grat in the head as Seifer finishes it off.

We reluctantly stop at one of the few safe places of the make-shift forest, resting against the cold stone walls as we catch our breath. No noise passes over us, the larger majority of the students either safely tucked into their beds or still attending the SeeD ball.

"Well, aren't we the most talkative pair," I say after a few moments, taking Shiva's previous words and hanging them into the air. Seifer sends me a sad smirk and I sigh, standing up from where I was sitting on the wall and put my pistols into their holsters.

"We need to get right to the point," I comment and start pacing, fully aware of his calculating eyes following my every move. "Otherwise, this thing will just drag on and on."

_I don't think that worked, _Eriol appears in my head and settles himself beside Shiva on the couch with an amused smile on his face. I mentally glare at him, sending a scowl at his direction.

_The hell you doing here? _I ask and the boy shrugs, throwing a tennis ball into the air and catching it. _This is a private conversation, _I continue but Eriol ignores me and I choke down the scream bubbling inside my throat.

_Fine, be that way. _I mutter and turn my eyes to observe Seifer as he polishes his gunblade nervously.

"Apparently, as the voices inside my head are telling me, that didn't work."

My humor doesn't help and I stifle down another scream. Deciding to take on a different approach, I sigh and settle myself against a tree. "Moving on, then." I say and cross my arms over my chest. "Seifer, what's your dream?"

The blond shoots me a slightly wary but overall confused look and I motion with my hand for emphasis. "Back at Dollet, you were talking about dreams but never mentioned yours. I finally have an answer as to what my dream is, actually."

"Do tell," Seifer says, finally looking interested in the topic.

_Quick, what's my dream? _Eriol snorts in laughter inside of my head and gives me a pitying look.

_Sorry, no ideas there._

"Well, I figured, that since I don't have a dream of my own, I'd help my friends fulfill theirs. …Uh. Yeah." My mind is currently whirling at where the hell that came from, but I find myself agreeing with the words. I send a look at Shiva and Eriol, but they both shake their heads at the unspoken question between us.

"I want to help my friends with their dreams and goals, but… I still want the best for them." I notice how Seifer's eyes narrow slightly at the statement. "If… if they want something that I know is bad for them, I won't hesitate to attempt to stop them."

I wonder slightly if that was the wrong thing to say, but I want him to understand that if he does turn to the Sorceress, I won't be there to support him. That is, if everything goes by the game plot and Edea (or Ultimicia) decides to take him as their lap dog.

There's silence again between us, and I have a feeling that what I just said didn't help at all, if only it made matters worse. Groaning to myself, I raise my head to the see-through ceiling, where stars sparkle brightly without a care for the world.

"We're… not very good at this, are we?" I mutter, noting how the strange calmness I had felt earlier isn't disappearing – only increasing at frightening speed.

"I don't think this was a good idea," I carry on, tightening my SeeD jacket around me tighter. "We have royally screwed up the things between us." Seifer doesn't reply still and I feel my mental restrains snapping.

"Say something." I say to him, scowling when he snorts and turns his head towards me.

"What do you want me to say?" He replies back bitterly, fingers tightening on the handle of Hyperion. "That you're right?" He snorts again. "It doesn't take a genius to see that."

Oh, the bastard just loves pissing me off.

"Seifer Alamasy," I start, advancing towards him. "You are freaking confusing. Do you know that you have even more mood swings than I? First, you're all 'let me be your knight' then you're all 'we need to talk about that' and now you're 'I could care less'! I need to know which one you are; otherwise, I can't answer anything that you ask."

Okay, I seem to be calming down. Good.

Something passes over Seifer's eyes that I can only identify as guilt, but it's gone as fast as it comes. "And what about you?" He spits back, standing up to tower above me. "You were the one suggested we come here; who's fault do you think all of this is?"

Oh, fuck. He has just crossed the line.

"You, you, you…UGH!" The scream finally makes it appearance; a rather dramatic one, might I add, as I stomp my way to him like a whiny five-year-old brat that had something precious to it denied, eyes narrowed to little slits in a Fuujin fashion and shoulders trembling in suppressed rage.

"You know what, you bastard?" I snap, glowering fully and squishing the urge to take out my guns and blast the hell outta something. "I am going to give you my answer right here: I like you a hell lot. Hell, I think I might even be in love with you!"

I barely register the slightly surprised look on his face, continuing on with my rant. "But you just have to go and be a complete and total idiot – I have a freaking half a mind here to take out my guns and shoot you! But nooo, I can't, because one: I still consider you a very good friend and two: you have a damn role here to fulfill!

"And now, hah, you know what? Because you have just spiked up my hatred for you by a whole notch, I can care less what happens to you! You can go and become the Sorc—"

Something snaps my mouth shut and I can feel the intensity of Eriol's glare directed at me as he clamps my mouth closed, hissing curses worse than I had ever heard to himself. Shiva is watching, wide-eyed, the display before shaking her head and frowning at me.

"I agree with him," she mutters and I feel my body freeze as realization at what I had almost done hits me.

_Oh no no no no…_

"Become what?" Seifer's growl turns my attention to where he is, visibly bristling with anger. "I want you to finish the damned sentence."

_No, no no no no... Oh hell no._

"Forget it," I say as calmly as I can which is not much, since I can hear my voice shake. He takes a step towards me and I step back, moving closer towards the swampy part of the TC. "This was not a good idea," I repeat my words from earlier, not as surprised as I thought I would be as sobs start to gather in my throat.

I have just yelled at my best friend who liked me more than a friend, admitted that I may as well be in love with him, accused him of being a complete and total bastard, then practically told him to get out of my life.

Soap opera much?

"Kira? …Seifer?"

Quistis's voice startles the both of us and I turn to face her from where she is coming with Squall, a confused look on her features. Her eyes bounce between Seifer and I as she takes in his still frame and glare, my watering eyes and shaking shoulders, and the crippling atmosphere,

Her eyes narrow dangerously at Seifer.

"Quisty?" I call meekly, my mind going haywire with what I can only decipher as anguish and confusion. Quistis turns at her nickname, and even Squall looks slightly unsettled by it.

"I'm going to go back to my room, okay? I'll see you tomorrow." I start walking hurriedly past them, ignoring the looks on their faces. Eriol disappears abruptly from my mind, leaving a cold presence behind, while Shiva attempts to comfort me, a pitying look in her blue eyes.

Hopefully, I can sneak into the cafeteria for some tubs of chocolate ice-cream.

Something tells me that the mood-swing I just had was my very own and not Shiva's.

---

---

Needless to say, my night doesn't go well. But surprisingly, it's not about Seifer at all… instead, they are… someone's memories?

_There's a little girl and a boy. They're… on a beach? I can't see very well… but they're shouting. The girl's pose is angry; the boy's is even angrier – but there's regret in there?_

_I'm confused. What…?_

_There's a woman now. She's scolding them; they hang their heads down and murmur something before the woman sighs and kneels down, saying something to them. They nod and run off up the beach – but not together, as I expected them… they girl runs over to where another girl and a boy are waiting, while the boy runs off to somewhere else._

_There's no one waiting for him._

_My vision goes black and all I see is darkness – yet there's no white door this time. Instead, light fades in and I can see again – there's a boy with black hair, standing on the same beach, his back facing me. He turns and I can feel my heart stop, even in my sleep._

_It's Eriol._

_He's frowning at someone behind me so I turn slowly, slightly scared at what I may see._

_It's a woman and a man. They're close together; the woman has blond hair and brown eyes, while the man has black hair and grey eyes. Their arms are linked together, staring off somewhere._

_It's my parents._

_They're looking at the little girl approaching them curiously. _

_She opens her mouth, about to say something—_

I wake up unexpectedly, my head pounding and my body covered in cold sweat. Shiva is sound asleep inside my mind, and I can feel our link gradually withdrawing until there's only a flicker of it left.

My dream is slowly leaking out of my mind – but I need to know why Eriol's there, why my parents are there! And the girl… the girl, she was about to say something, wasn't she?

Panic steeps in and I try to calm myself down, never one for strange dreams such as that. I fan my face with my hand until I feel the burning decrease to a reasonable amount. Coherent thoughts make their way into my head and I try to sort out what's left of the dream.

"But what parts of it were the…dream?"

Eriol.

I need to talk to Eriol – I need to ask him why he was there, looking just like he looks now, watching my parents—

A forced sleep laps upon me, and I the next thing I know is that Selphie is shaking me awake, not a thought about what happened hours before on my mind.

---

---

"Damnit Selphie," I mutter bitterly, recognizing the yellow blob above me. "Why for the love of all things sacred must you be awakening me at this unholy hour?"

Selphie rolls her eyes and I sit up, trying to wipe the drowsiness away from my eyes. I fumble for my bed-side clock, and growl at the '6:38' digits flashing innocently on it.

Somebody kill me right now.

"Come on, silly!" Selphie calls to me from where she is already at the doorway, her nunchakus strapped onto her back. "It's our first SeeD mission – meet by the front gates right now!"

And then she's gone like a yellow flash.

"SeeD… mission…?" As you can see, I am not at the best of moods in the morning.

"When are you ever?" Shiva jokes from where she has just awakened with me, yawning widely. "But you better hurry up, love. I don't think they'd appreciate you being late."

I sigh and grudgingly stand up, walking over to my closet where my new clothes from Eriol are waiting. Taking a peek outside from my window, I decide against the extra pants and quickly dress in the red top, yellow skirt, and black trench coat.

I slip into my shoes which are just beside my door and pick up a few necessary items, being quite aware of what is going to be happening for someone this early in the morning. My pistols and sword are next to be placed onto me, and I'm fully ready to go.

"Junctions are check!" Says Shiva cheerily in my head and something warm spread throughout my body – Fire? – before I feel my strength increase.

"Ooh, that's useful." I mumble to myself and a quick 'thanks' to Shiva. Remembering that I had just gotten my room yesterday from when I was coming back to the Dormitories – damn it, I'm gonna miss Karen – I take my new key and lock the shiny brown door behind me.

By the time I arrive at the front gates, my teammates are waiting with the exception of Zell. I nod to them and they either ignore me – Squall and the faculty – or smile at me; Selphie and Cid.

"We're giving him another minute…" The Member on my right mutters to himself just as Zell speeds towards us, flying on what looks like a hovering snowboard.

"Sorry I'm late!" He cries as he catches the board in his arms, sending as an apologetic smile.

The Faculty beside me move forward, one taking the item from the blonde's hands and handing it to the other. "T-Board are prohibited at Garden; or have you forgotten?" He asks and Zell scratches his head sheepishly.

"You are SeeD, but that does not mean rules do not apply to you." He finishes off coldly and Zell sends the finger at their retreating back, before turning back to us.

Cid coughs to get our attention. It works well, because we salute him in the next few seconds on instinct.

"Well, about your first mission...You are to go to Timber. There, you will be supporting a resistance faction. That is your mission. A member of the faction

will contact you at Timber Station." He says and the Garden Faculty member left with us continues the briefing.

"This person will talk to you and say, 'The forests of Timber sure have changed'. At this time, you must reply, 'But the owls are still around'. That is the password."

We nod in understanding and drop our salutes at a sign from Cid. "Just follow their orders," our Headmaster says and looks at Squall. "Squall. You will be the squad leader." The gunblade wielder nods.

"Well, that's it then… oh!" Cid suddenly picks up the rusted lamp beside him, handing it over to us. "This is a dangerous item; but if you are strong enough, it will come in handy." He winks at us. "Be ready when you decide to test it."

I grab the lamp from Squall's hands and examine it curiously, wondering how the hell Diablos is able to stay in there… it's so _small_. "I'll carry it!" I announce at the glare I am getting from Squall. "You have your gunblade to carry around; I only have guns!"

The brunette shrugs and I take it as a 'yes'. Grinning happily to myself, I carry the lamp by the handle, ignoring the ominous aura it's giving off as we head towards Balamb, opting for walking over taking one of the SeeD cars by the suggestion of Zell.

---

---

"Eight-one bottles of beer on the wall, eighty-one bottles of beer! You take one down, you pass it around, eight bottles of beer on the wall…!"

If you haven't guessed yet, it's Selphie's singing. And I gotta tell you – it's getting pretty annoying. We've only been walking for ten minutes – it takes about thirty to get to our town of Balamb – and the brunette's singing has been going on for most of it.

It's not that she's bad at it, either. It's just that there are… monsters here, to our greatest amusement, who've decided they enjoyed hearing it and would like to get closer.

No, not really. Probably not.

But we have encountered quite a few Bite Bugs amongst other monsters I've forgotten names of, a number that I am certain is over the normal encountering range. So we slash, slash, bang, chink, chink and splat, splat them until we get very annoyed by the singing bundle of joy traveling with us.

"Selphie, could you please stop?" Selphie sends Zell a curious look at his question, and he smiles nervously. "It's just that you're attracting monsters…" She gets an understanding look on her face and immediately shuts up, settling for quiet humming.

Ah, well. It's better than singing.

Surprisingly enough, Squally has been shooting me weird looks for quite a few minutes now, probably about what happened last night. Speaking of that, I need to think on what I am going to do the next time I see Seifer – which will probably be at Timber.

Aw, damnit. I'm getting all depressed again.

"So… when shall we try our luck with our magical lamp over here?" I ask, mentally prodding at Shiva to check over my junctions and spells. She rolls her eyes and does so, nodding in affirmation when she's finished.

Zell sends a nervous look at the lamp clutched not-so-innocently in my hands. "Uh, I don't know about you guys, but that thing has this freaky aura around it… you sure we should open it?"

Squall rolls his eyes at the statement. "If you're so worried about it, then it's better to examine it now over when we are in Timber." He says dully, pausing for a few seconds for what I can only guess is checking over Junctioning.

Selphie and Zell do so as well, and at last we are ready. I shoot a look at them, holding the object in question at arms' length. "You guys ready?" They nod and I pop the lid open, anticipating and slightly fearing the fight coming up with one of my most favourite GFs in the entire game.

In the time span of five seconds, I find myself lying face down on a cold, dark floor with mist surrounding the area. My companions are scattered around it, struggling to get up.

"Foolish humans…" A cold voice echoes above us and we look up, various emotions passing over our faces at the sight of the winged black and red Guardian hovering above us with what I can only describe as a predatory smirk on his face. "You dare disturb my sleep?"

"Actually, I don't think we'd be opening that lamp if we weren't." Yep, that's me, talking back to the evil-looking demon. Diablos just seems to find this amusing, seeing as how he chuckles.

"Well, let us begin, then."

Without a warning, he flies towards Squall who's leaning on his gunblade beside me, quickly striking the SeeD with his claws before retreating back. Not one to stay out of battle – especially against Diablos – I grab my twin pistols and start shooting like crazy at the guy, who manages to avoid some of my bullets.

Zell starts advancing towards Diablos, and Selphie starts shooting some of the spells she had collected at our enemy. Those include some Fires, Blizzards, Thunders, and I even manage to see a Fira and a Water spell she had gotten by some chance.

We're doing well but not well enough, because Diablos looks just peachy from where he is. Deciding to take this up a notch, it seems, Diablos waves one of his clawed fingers in the air and a blast of _something _hits us.

I stifle down a pained moan at the feeling I get from the Gravija, hoping that none of my vital organs got injured in the process. I have never felt one of these, and let me tell you: they hurt like hell. It's as if something really heavy is being slowly forced not only upon you, but inside of you as well.

"Oh, this should get interesting." Shiva's voice confuses me, but that is quickly washed away when I feel a somewhat familiar sensation spread through my mind.

Ooh, time to see my new Limit Break…

On a freaky instinct, I grab my two pistols and hold them above my head where they flash for a few seconds before sending a light spiraling around me. I open my eyes to see three copies of yours truly standing by my side, in the exact positions. Following the instinct, I (we) jump into the air where Diablos is hovering and surround him in a wide circle before shooting at him.

This goes on for a few minutes until by some unseen signal we stop and my copies disappear in little sparkles. I grab my sword out of its sheath and start hacking away at Diablos – probably resembling Squall while I do so – before sticking it through his chest, after which I land lightly on my feet and stab Diablos once more.

"Impressive," Shiva comments in my head as I pause to catch my breath, leaning on my sword for support. I watch as Squall gets his Limit and uses Rough Divide after his impressive Renzokuken, followed by a show of impressive punches and kicks from Zell. Selphie sends a Full-Cure towards us then proceeds by blasting multiple third-level spells at Diablos.

The devil in questions finally starts looking worn down, so I try to Draw a Demi from him – surprisingly enough it works, and I shoot it right back at him to which he gives me a hearty glare.

"Yo, we almost have him!" Zell yells over his flurry of attacks and Selphie's nunchakus. Squall joins the fray and I take my pistols and use them to attack Diablos before opting for my sword lying on the side and proceeding to pummel Diablos.

Finally, Diablos's wings sag a little and he groans. "Too much sleep…" I hear him mutter. "Oh well. I will join you."

We awake to find ourselves back at the plains surrounding Balamb, eating dirt, gravel, and grass once again. Diablos's lamp lies beside us, a black and red stone twinkling beside it. I quickly stand up and grab it, shooting a slightly apologetic look at Squall when he gives me a look.

"Sorry," I say, bringing it up to my mind and wincing when it gets absorbed into the wonderful place where Guardian Forces reside. "But I did say I was getting the next GF."

And on we go, to the wonderful town of Timber!

…Actually, it's not that wonderful and I don't really like it. But I get to meet Rinoa – who I've never actually hated – and jump from trains to trains. Fun, ain't it?

…And why do I feel like I'm forgetting something very important that I never wanted to forget in the first place…?

Ah, well. I have more important things to think about – like what the hell I am going to do when I see Seifer. I do _not_, for a fact, want to either a) get a very bad mood swing or b) be forced to kill him.

…I hate this.

* * *

a/n: The faeries have visited me and gave me so much inspiration that I cannot take it all in. For one, you will notice how messed up the start of the chapter is – the whole Seifer/Kira ordeal has turned out way differently from what I thought I would do. Second is the Eriol bit – he was originally gonna be some side character that would appear once in a while. 

Ugh. Wonderful.

I am still not satisfied chapter, even after redoing it three times.

Oh well. Read and review, people and until next time!


	9. Nigh' Nigh'

_**Disclaimer: **__Nope, nothing belongs to me._

**Chapter Nine**  
Nigh' Nigh'

"Da da dun, da dun dun…"

We have been walking close to half-an-hour and have finally reached Balamb, currently walking in through the gates by the Car Rental shop and on our way by some guy sitting on a bench who looks like he's never gotten up, a Thunder draw point – which Selphie quickly claims as her own – the Junk Shop and finally the train station.

We popped by the Junk Shop but alas, none of us could remodel our weapons yet. I did find the names of my pistols and sword though – Sicels and Sasuno, respectively. They sound like weird names to me, but oh well.

"Sounds like some ancient language," Diablos comments in my head and Shiva nods in agreement. "If we have time, we'll try to decode it if you'd like."

"That'd be nice!" I reply back, sitting on a railing and swinging my feet as I wait for the line for the ticket booth to get shorter so we can buy our tickets.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned Diablos that much, have I? Well, let's see… how could you describe him?

"Cunning, handsome, a devil," Diablos says slyly, peering into my thoughts. I shoo him away with Shiva's amused laugh following after him, and sit up straight as Zell comes back to our group, grumbling.

"A freakin' 3,000 gil…" He mutters as he hands out our tickets, and I take mine happily, fingering the sharp edges. Just to tell you, I've never actually _been _anywhere outside of Balamb Island before our SeeD exams, so this is all new and exciting to me.

Once we're all ready we board on the happy happy train that shall take us far away, handing our tickets to the old guy standing before the door leading inside. The door shuts closed right after us and I can feel the rumbling starting under my feet.

Oh yeah, baby!

"This train is awesome!" My blond companion cries, peering out the window. "A transcontinental railroad, baby!" I look out with him and my eyes grow wide as we slowly slip under the ocean.

"How do you open this?" Selphie's confused voice brings me back down to Gaea from the wonder of how long it took to build this and I watch as she starts fiddling with the metal door on the other side of the cabin.

"You have to use the tickets we got," Zell explains from beside me, shooting Squall a look. The brunette in turn walks over and inserts one of the plastic cards, where it stays for a few seconds before it pops back out and a happy-go-lucky voice echoes from the speaker above.

"Access granted!" It informs us and Selphie grins brightly, already halfway through the doorway.

"Teehee! Thanks!" She giggles and skips in, disappearing from our view.

"Let's check it out!" I cry and rush in with Zell at my heels, Squall's following behind us after a few moments.

The train doesn't look like anything special, with a bright hallway and a row of windows on the left side, where Selphie is glued to humming the train song you're supposed to sing on a train. On our left is a wall and a door, which Zell immediately opens and his eyes grow thrice their size.

"OHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEAAAAH! AWESOME!!" In he runs. Squall checks the sign on the door after it's shut and I read over his shoulder, giggling at the 'SeeD's Private Cabin' words.

I follow after my buddy and my grin grows as wide as the Cheshire Cat's at the sight of the plush couch, bunk beds, fluffy red carpet and even a water cooler and a mini-fridge!

"Checks this out!" I cry, running over to the couch and start bouncing alongside Zell, grabbing onto his shoulders to keep steady before flinging my shoes off and standing up. "I'm the Queen of the World!" I exclaim, doing a twirl in mid-air and landing on my butt in a heap of mindless giggles.

"I'm glad you are so amused," I stick my tongue out at the dry voice of Squall as he comes in, taking in the sight with a raised eyebrow. "But don't forget that we are on a mission."

Zell sighs and stops in mid-bounce. "Yeah, you're right." I sit up straight after a few seconds, reaching for the end-table to grab onto some random magazine.

"'Pet Pals'?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at the title and the absolutely adorable dog on the cover. "Here, Squally. Read a magazine or something." I fling it over to him after a few minutes of leafing through. He catches it and sends me a look before leaning against the wall and opening it.

"I'm hungry," Zell suddenly says and walks over to the mini-fridge. "Think they got any hot dogs here?"

I snicker and follow after him. "I doubt it." He pouts and I peek in, eyes trailing over a few sodas before they land on an apple and a chocolate bar. "Ooh!" I cry, grabbing both and biting into the fruit while sticking the candy in a pocket. "Food!"

I munch on my apple while Zell starts gobbling down some other fruit. Our snack time is cut short, though, when Selphie stumbles in through the door, looking pale in the face.

"Selphie?" I ask, frowning as I take in her appearance. Something starts pushing at my thoughts but I ignore it, more concerned at my new-found friend's health over whatever the subconscious part of my mind wants me to know.

"I don't feel so good, you guys…" She mumbles quietly, rubbing a hand across her glassy eyes.

"You should get some rest if you're tired," Squall suggests, slight concern in his voice. Selphie nods her head and starts shuffling towards one of the bunk beds.

"I'm really tired…" She mutters, but her legs trip over themselves and she starts crashing down on the couch.

"Selphie!?" I cry, rushing over to her and checking to see if she has a fever. Finding nothing, I frown and turn back to my companions. "Nothing – she's just asleep."

Squall shakes his head and sighs. "Think she's okay?" I continue, sending a worried glance to her motionless body.

"Ohh…" Zell's moan snaps our heads towards him, and I rush over to him as he leans further into his seat.

"I feel sleepy…" He mumbles audibly and flops over onto his side, a snore coming from his mouth moments later.

"What the…?" I turn to look at Squall. "How about you?" I ask, frowning and pushing away the growing pounding in my head. Squall narrows his eyes and nods.

"You?" He asks and I smile.

"I feel perfectly—" Heyy, why is my vision turning blurry…? Huh, I feel funny… "…fine?" I feel myself stumble slightly to the side and bring up a hand to my head.

"Kira?"

I blink blearily at Squall before leaning against one of the walls. "Nigh' nigh'…" I mumble before darkness overtakes my vision, the last thing I am able to see is Squall's form as it wavers and he clutches a hand to his forehead, finally crashing down onto the floor.

_Ellone?_

I don't know how the darkness that warped my mind turned to a leafy jungle, but it did. There's a little path between the trees, and a little creek running a few feet off beside me. It's peaceful, if not even pretty.

There's suddenly a loud curse and something – no, some_one _– crashes through the underbrush. Three men in Galbadian army uniforms, to be exact. The first one is quite tall, with semi-long dark brown hair and a machine gun in his hand. The second one is even taller than the first, and awfully skinny and lanky. The last one is almost as tall as the second one and quite bulky, carrying a huge-ass anchor on his shoulder.

"Damn it Laguna, you sure this is the right way?" The third one calls to the first, and I can feel my memories slowly returning to myself.

It's Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, in that order – the three trouble-making soldiers! Yay!

Laguna flashes a brilliant smile to Ward – I swear, my knees are turning to jelly – and they continue on, Kiros and Ward shooting looks at each other before sighing and following after their leader.

They continue on for a few more minutes before they are attacked by this _ugly _mushroom monster that I don't even want to touch. It wobbles at them for a few seconds almost tauntingly and Laguna's eye twitches as he pulls out his machine gun and starts shooting like crazy.

Kiros pulls out his knife-like weapons and starts slashing madly, while Ward throws his anchor weapon once in a while when the other two are out of range. In a few minutes, the mushroom fiend lets out a wheeze and _slowly _starts deflating.

The three soon stumble – more like crash through some more bushes – upon a clearing, upon where Ward crosses his arms and gives the place a weird look.

"Aren't we here to fight a war?" He questions and turns to Mr. Loire (that's Laguna, in case you didn't know).

"Yeah," Kiros adds in. "So why are we wasting our time with these animals?" He and Ward turn their stares at Laguna, who just smiles and rubs his head sheepishly.

"Well, you see…" He stumbles. "It's, just, uhh…"

"Don't tell me we're lost again," Kiros says wryly, shooting their leader an accusing look.

"Anyways! We're going home!" No, Laguna, don't change the subject. It's not nice.

Laguna starts running across the clearing and the two watch after him. "Home?" Kiros asks and Laguna turns for a split-second.

"Yeah!" He exclaims, pumping a fist into the air happily. "Deiling City, here we come!" And off he goes to who-knows-where.

"W-wait! Laguna!" Ward groans when the brunette doesn't come back and starts scurrying off with Kiros after their charge – I mean leader. But really, what kind of leader does Laguna make? Not a very good one, I can tell you that.

The two follow him outside the forest, where a dirt path is leading to who-knows-where. There is a car parked there, however. It's standing all crooked-like and has one wheel in a nearby ditch, so my guess is that the driver should really re-take their driver's parking test.

"Took you guys forever to get out here!" Laguna calls from beside the car – so I'm guessing he's the driver – before climbing inside. Kiros and Ward sigh heartily and climb in after him; but waiiit. Aren't they here to fight a war? They don't make really good soldiers if they just abandon their post half-way through. Which brings me to another point – where the hell are all the other soldiers?

I continue pondering this as the car starts up, the engine letting out a little cough of refusal. A curse sounds from inside and there are a few yells and the sound of a scuffle before the vehicle abruptly wheels into one of the trees behind it – miraculously not damaging itself – and starts off shakily down the road.

I am given no choice but to follow them – somehow, seeing that I have no body here. I wonder… am I a spirit?

Deciding to try out the theory, I imagine myself climbing onto the roof. In mere seconds my eyes are trained on the road ahead and I give a grin – it slides off as the car gives another shakes and I attempt to clutch onto _anything _to get the feeling of falling off shaken off. It stops and I breath a sigh of relief.

As Laguna said: Deiling City here we come!

* * *

Yes, I know. Incredibly short and boring, but bear with me please… I've recently gotten myself addicted to _Naruto _again – cookies if you've ever watched it – and have been playing Final Fantasy X over Final Fantasy VIII… oh, well. I'm going to play it as soon as I finish reading this Pirates of the Caribbean fic my friend sent me. Updates will not be as frequent – at least not until I get FFVIII back into my mind – but I am not abandoning this. Rather, I have very _interesting _ideas as to where this shall lead off to. 

If you are ever in doubt, however, I have all of my **Story Statuses **on my profile. Don't forget to review!


	10. Wonderland Wonders Much? I Think Not!

_**Disclaimer:**__ Final Fantasy VIII, its characters, plot, and content don't belong to me. _

**Chapter Ten**  
Wonderland Wonders Much? I Think Not.

Let me say one thing before the contents of my non-existent dream world stomach decide to make their appearance: I hate cars. No, really, I hate cars being driven by lunatic men who have probably never gotten their licenses and like scaring people silly. First there's Raijin, with his _wobble-wobble-plunk-down-in-the-ocean-we-go _style of driving that nearly got me drowned in the sea then crashed into a brick wall; then there's Laguna (who I like much more than Raijin, I hafta admit) with his _screech-screech-brrrrrrmmmm-CRASH _that nearly has us jumping out of the car in fright.

So after securing myself more tightly on the roof of the car even though I know perfectly well I don't have a body belonging to myself that will go under the tires of the transport vehicle, I watch as the sky slowly but surely turns to night while we approach the bright sign screaming "WELCOME TO DEILING CITY" at us.

The city's quite purdy, too. It looks like some place that never sleeps on the outside with its flashing neon lights and crowded streets, but I get the feeling that it actually has _depth _in it – otherwise, I don't understand how army generals such as Caraway can put up living here.

Which brings me to the next question of my rambling while Laguna and co. continue their wobbly trek to the Hotel: _Why do I still remember what the hell is going to happen in my new reality?_

There's no reply from Eriol and I'm guessing it's because he can't interfere with Ellone's work. Sighing loudly to myself, I observe as numerous street lamps pass over me until we come to an open plaza with a huge, ancient-looking gate in the distance – I have to check it out sometime later when we get here in real life.

I'm jerked out of my daydreaming quite rudely when the car suddenly swerves left, then right and forward, before doing a 180 spin and coming to a coughing stop right in the center of the parallel lanes.

"Hey! You can't just park in the middle of the street!" Ward cries from below the hood of the car, and I find myself agreeing with him. He seems to be one of the only two reasonable people here.

"Chill, man." Laguna says, jumping out of the car with his comrades behind him. "It's cool, all right? So, how about a drink?"

His slightly pleading smile is adorable, but Kiros crosses his arms. "We aren't just here for the booze, are we? We've got a war to fight."

"So we'll get smashed, then we'll CHAAARGE!" Forget what I said about Ward being a reasonable one – though that _does _sound like something fun to do. Aw, now I'm thirsty for something to drink.

"You misunderstand me." Laguna interrupts, smiling charmingly. "I just want to have a nice friendly drink with you two."

So after a few moments of thinking the two follow after Laguna and the three men head off down some streets past a shopping district until they come to a rather nice hotel with a yellow sign reading 'Galbadian Hotel' on it and enter. It looks rather posh with nice polished floors and even a couch or two in the center, but I don't have to examine all of this seeing as how a smiling attendant rushes the three soldiers down a staircase.

Another attendant is waiting down at the bottom and quickly shows them to their 'regular table' where they order their 'usual drinks, please' before sprawling themselves on the couch-chair thing and relaxing.

"So Laguna," Ward says from beside Kiros, shooting a sly smile towards their leader. "Julia should be making her appearance soon. You going for it tonight?"

"Yeah!" Kiros agrees, looking at him with the same look. "Go for it!"

"What-ever man!" Laguna declines, crossing his arms over his chest and turning his head to hide the light blush spreading there. "She'll be too busy to talk to me… Can't you see she's working?"

Just then the people in the room other than our three favourite soldiers quiet down and a pretty, dark-haired woman who looks not a day over twenty walks in, wearing a pretty red dress with a slit up one of the sides and straps criss-crossing her neck and shoulders. She starts going over to the piano, sitting down to start a _wonderful _melody that I feel like I can listen forever to.

Laguna is staring at the woman with this kind of puppy-slash-dreamy look on his face and Kiros and Ward are doing everything to keep themselves from bursting into laughter, so they just smile and chuckle at their friend.

"You should go and say hi or something – at least wave," suggests Kiros, giving Laguna a slight shove.

Laguna sighs and stands up. "Alright," he mutters, and I get the feeling he's giving himself a light pep talk in his mind. Slowly he starts to walk over to the front of the room towards the stage and I have the urge to roll my eyes – dude, not in the middle of her song!

So he nears her piano all the while muttering something about 'being this close to Julia' and all while she just gives him a quick look seeing as how she is still playing the instrument. Laguna just stands there for a few minutes looking lost before his face scrunches up and he gives a quiet curse, reaching down to clutch at his left leg.

"My leg's cramping up!" Is his explanation as he limps back to his table, where Ward thumps him hard on the back as he sits down.

"Good job, man!" He exclaims. "Mission successful!"

Kiros gives a chuckle and hands their companion a drink. "Didn't think you'd actually do it, Laguna! Our popularity rating has just gone up a point!"

Ward smirks as he chugs his own drink. "Yeah, but you cut a pretty pitiful figure up there." Hey, that's mean! True, but mean. "I'd say you're about a -3 on the manliness scale."

Laguna rubs the back of his head pitifully and sighs. "Say what you want!" He exclaims in a manner that oddly reminds me of Zell. He gives another sigh. "But man, Julia sure is pretty…"

"Aa…" Kiros suddenly shoots a look behind the brunette then back to Ward. "Laguna, we're taking off. Relax and stay a while, why don't you? It's on us tonight." With a wink in his direction, he and Ward quickly high-tail it out of there while Laguna starts shooting confused looks at their retreating backs.

"H-Hey!" He cries. "What's the rush?" All he receives is a small wave so he sits back down with a hearty sigh.

"May I?" The drink he was about to inhale all but drops to the stainless hotel table as Julia's voice echoes behind him, traces of small amusement evident in it. Laguna whirls around and gets this _adorable _baffled look on his face.

"Aaaa…" His eye twitches for a second before he limps again to the other side of the booth as Julia sits politely where he just was, plopping down stiffly.

"Did I interrupt anything?" Julia questions, cocking her head to the side. Laguna hurriedly shakes his head.

"No, no, it's fine…" He says and Julia smiles gladly.

"How's your leg?" She questions, to which her brunette companion looks confused for a while before comprehension dawns on his face.

"L-leg?" He stutters, a blush on his face. "O-oh, this? Yeah. It's fine. Happens all the time when I get nervous." He gives an embarrassed cough and Julia smiles slightly.

"Were you nervous?" She asks again and Laguna looks up sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah." He answers. "I'm still kinda…"

"You can relax. You don't have to get nervous around me."

"Oh, sorry." Julia gives a small giggle and I wonder if she's for real – I mean, does she know _anything _about guys or is she just pretending? If she is, she's pretty good at it…

The two stay in silence for a few moments before Julia turns to Laguna and leans down to whisper. "Say… Would you like to talk somewhere private? I have a room here…" She trails off as Laguna's head snaps up.

"I-in your room!?" His eyes are twice their size now and Julia nods, an amused smile on her lips.

"It's just…" She shoots a look around them. "It's pretty hard to talk here. Everyone's listening in." Hell, she's right. Almost all of the people are practically crowded around them.

"If you'd like, please come by. I've been wanting to talk to you." When Laguna stays silent, her smile slightly wavers. "You don't want to?"

"Of course I do!" Laguna exclaims and Julia stands up, beaming at him.

"Then I'll go ahead and wait for you. Ask for my room at the front desk, okay?" Laguna nods rapidly and watches as she departs before flinging himself down onto the seat.

"Am I dreaming?" I hear him mutter to himself, chin in his hand. He mutters some more and I giggle. _Damn, this guy talks to himself too much! _I stop when Laguna slams his fist into his other palm, looking up at the ceiling with a grin.

"I always screw up by talking about myself too much. It's always been like that. But not tonight! I'm all ears for Julia!" Finished with his pep talk, he all but zooms up the stairs and to the upstairs lobby, leaving half of the men left inside broken-hearted.

"…Aah. Mr. Laguna Loire? I've been expecting you." The receptionist flashes a brilliant smile at him and points down the hallway. "Ms. Julia's room is just down the hall, second to the right." She winks and her smile widens, leaving poor Laguna slightly freaked as he starts off down the wood-polished hall.

Soon enough – after a few minutes of more of Laguna's slightly hilarious if not a little pathetic pep talks – I find myself watching Laguna and Julia as they stand across from each other.

"Thanks for coming." I hear Julia say as I plop down on one of the beds, marveling at how the sheets didn't even wrinkle.

"No… Not at all, uh… Thank you for inviting me." You go, Laguna! Be a gentleman and charm her!

Julia smiles – she seems to be doing that a lot around Laguna, heehee. "Have a seat," she suggests and watches, hiding a giggle, as the soldier paces across the room, setting himself down on the bed across from me then a chair before standing back up and hopefully walking towards the door.

"Going so soon?" Julia interrupts and he turns back to her guiltily. "We haven't even talked yet."

Laguna chuckles in embarrassment and walks to stand in the center of the nice room. "No, it's not that." He explains, scratching the back of his head and shooting a glance out the window. "It's just that I'm a big fan of yours, so I'm really kinda nervous, ya know?" Fan? Please. You're practically bordering on obsession, buddy. But don't worry – it happens to _most _of us. Hee hee.

Julia tilts her head to the side and quirks her lips. "So that's why you come to hear me play so often."

Laguna looks taken back at the words. "You… you saw me!?" …I'm pretty sure she did, if your performance earlier was anything to go by.

Aw, now I'm making fun of nice Mr. Laguna Loire. Can I give you a hug instead? Because you look mighty scared.

"You were always smiling when listening, right? …You have beautiful eyes. Though they look a bit scared now." I giggle at the pianist's words. She turns from where she was facing the wall to smile reassuringly at Laguna. "Don't worry. I'm not going to pluck 'em and eat 'em. I just want to talk, gazing into those eyes."

A large blush is spreading on his face, but Julia doesn't notice it and instead turns to her cupboard. "Would you like a drink? Wine perhaps?"

"I must be dreamin'…" Laguna mutters from the other side of the room.

Next thing I know, is that Laguna is drunk after only two glasses of wine and ready to stand and dance on a table, wearing a dress and singing. Well, not really, but he's gesturing wildly to Julia, who's sitting in front of him on one of the beds.

"Yeah, I don't like fightin' too much, but you get to travel, y'know?" He tells her brightly. "Seein' new places and stuff. And it's fun, 'cause Kiros and Ward are always with me. Hey, we should all go out drinkin' sometime! Whaddaya say?"

I scrunch up my nose slightly and fall back on the bed. _Oh, Hyne… _Julia seems to agree, because she just giggles slightly.

It seems Laguna has stopped chattering like a mad squirrel for now, so instead he scratches his head. "And, uh… What was I talkin' bout?" He asks sheepishly, hopefully sobering up. "Oh yeah, so I want to quit the army and become a journalist! So I can tell people 'bout all the things I've seen on my travels."

…No chance. Ugh.

"So, like, the other day," he continues rambling shamelessly. "One of my articles made the reader's column. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, that was way cool." Julia just nods, placing her hands in her lap politely.

"I'm happy for you," is what she says and I just give another groan and bury my face in the pink pillow and white pillow. I feel sleepy again…

I open my eyes from what I _think _was a nap, seeing as how I was sleeping in the first place to get here to hear them talking again.

"Tell me about yourself. Like...the dreams for the future." Ooh, this sounds interesting. Seems like Laguna has finally gained his sanity back.

"Well..." Julia replies, gazing out the window and tapping her chin in thought. "I want to sing. Not just play the piano, but sing too."

"Oh!" Laguna exclaims, grinning widely. "I'd really love to hear that."

"But… I can't." Julia sighs, standing up and looking longingly out the window pane again. "I'm no good at writing lyrics..."

"Hmm, it must be tough." Our soldier comments, but Julia turns to give him yet _another _smile.

"But thanks to you," she starts, "I think I can come up with something."

"Thanks to me?" Laguna says, confusion showing clearly on his face.

"Yes." She replies, walking closer to him.

"The many faces you've shown me. Times you were hurt, worried... Or felt pain inside you. Your smile, your face, your eyes... you've shown me something." She stops in front of Laguna, looking him in the eyes happily.

"I think I can come up with a song."

Laguna blinks and scratches his head, repeating what I think is one of his more favourite lines. "Wow... I must be dreamin'."

Julia takes one of his gloved hands in hers and smiles softly. "It's not a dream, is it?"

Aw, this is so adorable… I feel like I shouldn't be looking in on this. It feels like some scene off a romantic movie I used to watch with Karen; though I prefer romantic books. They are really more accurate, you know? Great, now I'm rambling… and I feel sleepy again. Didn't I just have a nap? What's wrong with me?

"Laguna!" The knocking and urgent voice snaps the two out of their mood. "We have new orders! Meet by the President's Residence on the double!" Kiros's knocking stops and the sound of foot steps going past the door echoes to our room.

"Can we meet again?" Julia asks, turning to her companion. Laguna nods and grins.

"Of course!" He says. "I have to come and hear you sing!"

_"Next stop. Timber… Timber…"_

There's blackness again, enveloping my sight and what feels like my whole body. In the time span of five seconds, I'm back on the moving train, a sprawled Squall on the floor with Zell and Selphie standing over him, the latter one poking him with the toe of her boot.

I blink blearily. _It was… all a dream? Ellone's… dreams, right?_

"You're awake!"

* * *

Heehee. I updated fast – all it took was blowing up the missile base with Zell, Selphie and Quistis on my game and I got addicted. Again. Hah. Well, tell me what you think in a review, please!

Until next time!


	11. Boundless Caravan Chu Chu!

_**Disclaimer:**__ Final Fantasy VIII, its characters, plot, and content don't belong to me. _

Since I had no e-mail to reply back to your question, this is the explanation for _Diablos_/_Pandemona._  
**Nlkfmn: **You obtain _Diablos_ by rubbing the _Magic Lamp_ Cid gives you when you leave for your Timber Mission – after that, you are able to obtain _Brothers_ (**Tomb of the Unknown King**), _Carbuncle_ (**Draw from one of the monsters attacking Rinoa**) and finally _Leviathan_ (**Draw from NORG**) before you fight **Fuujin** and are able to obtain _Pandemona._

I hope that explains your confusion.

**Chapter Eleven**  
Boundless Caravan; Chu Chu!

"We were… all asleep?"

I notice Squall has finally gotten up moments after me, and is looking around in confusion. I pick myself off the floor and pat down my cloak and hair before turning to face my companions.

"Maybe someone released some sleeping gas? There's lots of people who resent SeeD," Zell suggests, but I shake my head slowly more so to myself than to the others.

"Somehow, I doubt it…" My mumbles go unheard, thankfully.

"Am I missing anything?" Selphie quickly does a check of her own before frowning slightly. "Anyone hurt?"

"Nope," I answer and Squall raises and lowers one shoulder in answer.

"I don't think so," He replies and we settle ourselves back into our seats.

"What a relief!" Our bubbly brunette gives a giggle and stretches her arms over her head. "Hee! I had such a nice dream!" I consent with her, there. Somehow, watching the bumbling Laguna is _always _fun.

"Same here!" I agree, feeling a wide smile split my face.

"But seriously… Sir Laguna was soooo cool!"

Zell's and Squall's heads snap to Selphie simultaneously, and the blonde's eyes widen while Squall's narrow. "There was a Laguna in my dream, too!" Zell cries, sitting up straight. "He's a Galbadian soldier, right?"

"Laguna, Kiros and Ward…" I voice, watching in slight amusement at the many emotions passing over my comrades' faces. "Think we all dreamt the same thing?"

Zell frowns in answer while Selphie just shrugs. "Who knows."

"This is too confusing…" Squall mutters, bringing a hand to his forehead in frustration. "Let's forget about it for now and focus on our first mission. I'll report it to the Headmaster when we get back."

Problem is, Squally, it'll be a _long _time before we get back.

---

---

The rest of our lengthy ride goes uneventful, the only activities available being able to watch the ocean pass us by as we cross it underwater. Selphie manages to start up her train song again, while Zell and Squall leaf through a few random magazines.

I, personally, choose to loaf around and think upon what will be happening in the future.

_Yo, Eriol, you in there? _I haven't spoken to the boy in what seems to be a long time and I have a few questions left unanswered. Strangely enough, he seems to know a lot more than I do on this whole ordeal.

"Might I question who this 'Eriol' character is?" Diablos voices his question pleasantly while I await an answer, causing me to start up slightly.

"Eh. Promise to keep a secret?" I declare, as the devil-like Guardian shrugs his winged shoulders. "Well, if we have to start from the basics, I'd have to say this first – I'm not from Gaia."

He raises a hardly-visible – maybe even non-existent – eyebrow at the statement while Shiva just nods. "You see," I continue, "I lived on this other universe/planet/whatever where all of this was just a game until I got hit by a car – most likely dying in the process – and had this weird person I later found out was named Eriol send me here.

"I was thirteen at the time, and soon found myself at Balamb Garden's Infirmary, under the care of Dr. Kadowaki. There, I met most of the friends I have now." My explanation is finished and I await patiently Diablos's answer, pondering on how he'd take it all; I think I sound like a complete lunatic.

"That explains some things," he finally answers and I stare in confusion at him until he sighs and waves an arm around. "For example, you don't seem to be surprised by what has just happened to you and your fellow SeeD members."

I find the interpretation reasonable enough so I stay quiet, settling for yawing and stretching my hands over my head.

"Still tired?"

I turn sheepishly to Zell, who's looking at me with a grin and a quirked eyebrow. Smiling, I nod. "I guess so."

He just chuckles. "I suppose what happened can't _really _be considered sleep, could it?"

"Yep! So if you don't mind, I'll be taking a real nap now."

Squall raises his head for a moment from some weapons magazine in his hands. "We'll be at Timber soon," he says blankly and I shrug.

"Well, you'd rather have me drowsy than dead tired, right?" When he stays silent, I smile gleefully and settle down on the couch, using my arm as a pillow. "Thought so."

_It's the beach again; the beach with the little girl and boy. Wait, rewind: again? I've… never seen this place before. I would think I'd remember if I did._

…_Right?_

_"—sure?"_

_I whirl the full 180 degrees at the voice coming from somewhere far off behind me, squinting to make better sense of who the three figures are. Two seem to be full-grown adults, while the other is shorter – a child, maybe? They're walking closer to me, snatches of their conversation carrying over the small breeze._

_"…attempted before…danger—child." I am able to make no sense whatsoever of what they are talking about, but somehow, it sounds frightening. Shaking my head in resignation, I turn to face the horizon._

_"…"_

_Somehow knowing there's just __**someone **__standing beside me, I peek out of the corners of my eyes, an odd sensation of calmness indulging my senses. The person raises a brow at me, as if daring me to say something. Remarkably, I am not able to recognize the person __**at all**__. It's as if I don't even see them._

_I open my mouth to speak, head full of questions._

"Wake up."

Hold up; that's not my voice. It doesn't even resemble my voice! For one, it's much deeper. Second, it's close to my _ear_, and not coming out from my mouth.

"Damnit, Kira. Wake up."

I open my eyes and glare half-heartedly at the face of Zell, who's staring at me in mild frustration. "What do you want?" I growl, upset at having the very interesting dream of mine interrupted.

A ding suddenly sounds above us, and the cheery voice of the conductor falls to our ears.

"We will be arriving in Timber shortly. For those getting off, please be sure to have all your belongings."

Zell points a finger towards the speaker on the ceiling, still crackling from its announcement. "…That." Groaning, I grudgingly sit up and wipe my eyes to rid myself of the drowsiness before smoothing my hair to make it look at least somewhat presentable and hopping to my feet to exit the SeeD cabin and the train in general with my friends.

In truth, Timber is not much to look at if you are used to extravagant sights such as the ones in Balamb and Garden. The main color theme seems to be greens and blues, grey pavement paved on the ground and little houses here and there.

"Our first mission, baby!" Zell whispers, pumping a fist into the air and scanning the area with his eyes. "Get pumped!"

Selphie giggles and I roll my eyes, Squall in turn ignoring the lot of us and starting to head down the cold stairs. We follow him, looking around the place curiously. To me, the place kind of resembles a dump.

"Most likely, it's like this due to Galbadia. A long time ago they waged war on Timber and it finally fell, resulting in this." Silently, I'm wondering how Zell knows all this, since I can't recall any mention of it from Garden. Maybe I was sleeping in class when this was mentioned…? Well, what do you know – learning history in Garden actually proved to be useful.

"That was the time where our 'dream' took place, right?" The hushed conversation carrying on behind me proves to be too intriguing and I turn, leaning backwards slightly doing so to answer.

"I'm betting my Gil on that. Weren't Kiros, Ward, and Laguna Galbadian soldiers going to 'fight a war'?" I smile foolishly. "That is, until Laguna decided to return to Deiling."

Us three giggle at that particular detail, quickly snapping to attention when Squall sends us a glare over his shoulder. We finally come to rest by two little shops, one being marked as a 'Pet Shop' while the other being a gift store.

A guy wearing a too-large bandana on his head watches us suspiciously out of the corners of his eyes before approaching us. Thanks to my awesome memory (when really it's supposed to be rather bad) I am able to recognize him as Watts of the Forest Owls – the troublesome group we are to assist.

"The forest of Timber sure have changed," he comments off-handedly, and I have to wonder exactly _how _that is not a giveaway. I mean, some random guy just comes up to you and starts babbling about forests in a place where there are almost no trees, and not to mention that not many people are aware of what happened a long time ago.

Selphie and Zell exchange looks while I am off in la-la-land, but Squall remains ever-so-stoic and gives the guy the once-over. "But the owls are still around," he comments dryly, probably finding the password not up to his standards.

"…Though you need more Moogles here." I've no idea where that came from – probably some part of my brain reacting by what it remembers of the game – so the four send me odd looks and I shrug. Hey, it's true. Moogles make the world go round and round!

Watts however shakes it off and grins widely. "Welcome to Timber, sir. Come with me, sir. Please, please, this way, sir!" Wow, three too many sirs, don't ya think? We follow the practically-bouncing man towards some train tracks and a platform, where a train soon comes up to wait for us.

…What makes me so amused is that in large, bold letters the side of it reads 'FOREST OWLS'.

Really, what _are _these guys? I've never actually admired them too much, seeing as how they almost didn't know anything of what they were doing, and now being able to see them in real life… it's no better. Trust me.

We pile in and the metallic door shuts tight behind us, most likely locking us is. Another man greets us with a large smile on his face. "So, you guys are the SeeDs?" He asks and we nod in answer.

"I'm the squad leader, Squall. This is Zell, Kira and Selphie." Squall introduces us, motioning with his hand as our names are said.

"Nice to meet ya. I'm the leader of the Forest Owls, Zone." Zone introduces, to which he sticks out his hand for Squall to shake. The brunette ignores it and just nods silently.

"So, let's get on with it. What do we do?" As always, right up to the point of business, aren't you Squally?

Zone chuckles slightly in answer and moves back. "Just take it easy. Here, let me introduce you. Looks like you already met Watts." He and Watts exchange glances. "I guess it's just our princess then."

"It's the princess's nap time, sir." Watts informs his leader nervously and I raise one of my eyebrows. This was actually one of the parts that I _didn't_ get. I mean, why would you refer to Rinoa as 'princess'? Well, unless they mean her being the daughter of General Caraway, it really doesn't make any sense.

Zone sighs and looks back at us almost pleadingly. "Ahh, man... Hey Squall, sorry, but could you go get the princess? She's in the last room, up those stairs. Some of our other guys are in the room on the way. Ask 'em if you get lost."

"...Were we hired to run errands?" Squall's eye almost twitches at the prospect and Zone visible shuffles back a few centimeters. "Well?"

"A-Are you angry!?"

Giving an almost inaudible groan, our leader brings a gloved hand to his head in one of his signature moves. "This is the last time for this kinda thing," he informs him icily and starts to walk off down the hall where Zone pointed earlier.

I notice as Zone winces and crouches down in one of the corners, holding onto his stomach, mumbling ""OwOwOuccchhh" continuously while Watts just turns to us and stares for a few seconds.

"So…" he begins, eyes switching from Zell, Selphie and I. "Anyone up for a game of Triple Triad?"

---

---

Selphie manages to win off quite a number of cards from him including one with an adorable picture of a dog, which I'm guessing is Angelo, until I get bored. Sighing, I sit up from leaning against the cold floor beside Zell.

"I'm going to check to see if Squall hasn't gotten lost yet," I say at the inquiring looks and give a small wave, heading down towards Rinoa's room. On the way I manage to get stopped by another three people who give me a small lecture on the Forest Owls, complete with a show of their hidden cameras around the town, curtsey of the computer in the corner.

They inform me that Squall had just left minutes before, so after hurriedly saying good-bye to them I pace faster towards the end of the corridor.

"So. What are you doing standing here?" Squall whirls at my voice from where he is standing, staring at the door with a slightly confused look on his face.

"…She's asleep." He informs me after a few seconds and I stifle a small laugh.

"Of course she is," I say, gripping the doorknob and turning it. "We already know that it's her 'nap time'. Or are you too much of a gentleman now to come in and disturb a lady's beauty sleep?" He glares at me at the remark but I choose to ignore it, instead settling for observing the room.

There's one word to describe it: Pink. I'm serious. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, and even the furniture are some shade of _pink_. Now, I have nothing against the color (not much, anyway) but seeing so much of it gathered in one place _really _makes your eyes hurt. Squinting my eyes and wrinkling my nose, I push Squall forward before me.

"You wake her," I say dryly, stepping back a few paces and watching in amusement as the brunette gunblade-wielder looks uncertainly at the sleeping figure on the bed. He turns back to me for a few seconds with a look that almost _pleads _'do-I-have-to?' but I shake my head and grin ruefully.

Sighing, Squall takes a minuscule step forward. Thankfully for him, it's just then that Rinoa's body twitches and she sits up, rubbing at her eyes before blinking at the frozen figure of Squall.

"Hey... You're...! You know, from the party... So...does that mean... You're a SeeD!?" She finally says, now staring openly at him in what seems to be awe and amazement. Squall hesitantly nods in affirmation.

"I'm Squall, the squad leader." He suddenly turns and motions to me from where I'm standing by the wall, trying to blend into the pink that is there without any help of my dark clothes. Rinoa looks at where he's pointing and I give a smile and a wave, to which she smiles back.

"She's Kira," He finally introduces me. "There's two others with us."

Rinoa's eyes brighten visibly and her smile widens into a full-blown grin before she hops up and hurls herself at Squall in a hug. "YEEESSSS! SeeD is here!"

I choke on my laughter at the bug-eyed look Squall is giving her before he untangles her arms from where they are around his neck. "Take it easy."

She smiles sheepishly at him before staring to pace the room. "It's just that, I'm so happy! I've been sending requests to Garden forever, but nothing..." She gives a relieved sigh. "I'm so glad I spoke to Cid directly!"

"Oh... So you were looking for the headmaster at the party?"

She nods. "You guys know Seifer?"

I decide to contribute to the conversation so I nod. "Yep."

"Well, he's the one who introduced me to Cid. Cid is such a nice man." I listen half-heartedly to her ranting, not particularly interested in hearing about how nice our Headmaster is. "I really didn't think SeeD would come out to help a measly little group like us. But after explaining our situation to him, Cid gave the go ahead right away! Now that you guys are here, we'll be able to carry out all kinds of plans!"

Squall walks over to her when she pauses for breath, and she takes note, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes?" She asks and Squall motions with his head towards me then to the door.

"We're goin' back to the others," he informs her and she smiles.

"Ok, let's go!" She hesitates after taking a step and turns meekly towards us. "Umm, Squall, Kira. Is 'he' here?"

"…He?" I ask, watching her curiously and feeling a funky feeling stir in my stomach. …Jealousy? Shizit.

"Seifer."

Squall shoots me a look, probably because of the way I suddenly freeze up in the doorway. "... No, he's not a SeeD."

Rinoa sighs. "...Oh, well. Oh yeah, my name's Rinoa. Very pleased to meet you, Kira, Squall." She smiles brightly to me before turning her attention back to Squall.

"SeeD members dance quite well, don't they?" She teases and Squall stifles a groan, choosing to pour out a whole bunch of information at her instead.

"Approach your target inconspicuously at a dance party... There may be missions requiring this sort of subterfuge. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills."

Wait, it's expected? What do you mean? Is there some sort of handbook of rules for this? …Why wasn't I informed of this?

"Relax," Shiva giggles in my head, finally making an appearance after what seems to be _forever_. "I believe your SeeD Manual is lying somewhere in your room back at Garden."

"Wait… so there _is _a manual!" I cry to her, feeling slightly panicky. "Why didn't you tell me!? I believe that I have to _read _it!" The ice-queen and Diablos roar in laughter together and I decide to block them out, now focusing on the matters at hand.

"Ohhh... So it's work related. That's too bad..." Heehee. She sounds _disappointed_. Who knew she was starting to like him this early? I mean, she has barely even met him… Romance works in funny ways.

A dog that looks like a mix between a Saint Bernard and a German Shepherd suddenly walks in, weaving through my legs and almost making me loose my balance. He stops in front of Rinoa and gives a small whine, making her smile and start scratching him behind the ears.

Seeing our curious looks, she bends back up and starts explaining. "This is Angelo; he's my partner." Angelo gives a bark at his name and I can't help but grin at the cuteness of him. "He's really smart, believe me. But more on that some other time." She turns back to her dog.

"I have some important work to do now. Be good, Angelo." She walks past me out of her bedroom car and waves cheerily. "I'll meet you guys there!" She calls before disappearing.

Squall and I stare at her retreating back for a few moments before simultaneously picking up our pace and following after her. "I like her," I comment, trying to make conversation. "It's a change after having a leader who barely speaks a word to his teammates."

Squall raises an eyebrow at that and I grin. "It's not that you're a bad leader; you're a very good one, believe me. It's just that you need more _spark_, you know?" When he stays silent, I sigh and start waving my arms around for inspiration. "Like… SHAZAM! Y'know?"

"I believe you've been spending too much time with Raijin," he finally says, but I don't miss the _very _small smile on his lips at my words.

"Hey, he's a cool guy in all." I defend my friend quickly, seeing as how we're nearing Rinoa now. "He just needs to let up on the 'y'know's. And maybe try hanging out with someone other than Fuujin and Seifer."

I get no response form my companion, so I don't know whether he agrees or not. Never less, we slide open the door where everybody else is waiting and I walk over to Selphie and an oddly twitching Watts.

"What'd you do?" I whisper to her and she hides a giggle behind the palm of her hand while Squall introduces them.

"I believe I've just won more than half of his deck," Selphie replies, referring to their Triple Triad game. I laugh quietly with her until Zone starts shooing us into another cabin.

"Just stand anywhere you want." He instructs and I choose to lean by some taped-on cutout articles in the back. We finally settle down and the Forest Owls leader begins a speech of a sort.

"This is a full-scale operation." He says, using his arms for momentum. "Our resistance, 'The Forest Owls', will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh? It all started when we got a hold of top-secret info from Galbadia."

"I got the info, sir!" Watts interrupts, but otherwise his superior ignores him.

"There's a VIP from Galbadia coming to Timber." He continues, only to be broken off by an overly-excited Watts once again.

"Super V-I-P!!!"

"The guy's name is Vinzer Deling! Our archenemy, and the President of Galbadia."

"Vinzer Deling is a scoundrel!!! He's a dictator, not a president. Not even popular in Galbadia, sir!"

I watch in entertainment as the two go on trash-talking the president of Galbadia some more before Rinoa finally has enough and stops them to go on with the mission.

"President Deling is taking a private train from the Galbadian capital." She enlightens us, heading towards the miniature railroad complete with the trains positioned on the table in front of me.

"Our plan is to..."

Selphie pipes up at this point, efficiently cutting off what Zone was going to say. "...Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher!?"

The man recoils back and gives her a strange look, shaking his head. "Ahh...not quite..."

"So get to the point! Just tell us what to do!" That's Zell and I, getting rather impatient with all of this. Rinoa nods and motions for us to lean over the table, which we do so gladly.

"Shall we begin?"

By my standards, she makes all of this sound harder than it's supposed to be. Over-dramatizing, I suppose you could say. Our assignment itself is simple: kidnap the president, where Rinoa will 'peacefully' talk to him regarding the independence of Timber.

What us SeeDs are supposed to do is this: currently, our party is residing in the 'base' car, from where we will be riding on top of it going who-knows-how-many-miles an hour at breakneck speed alongside the cars of the train where the president is riding in. We jump onto the second escort car of the opposing train from this car's roof.

Two sensors are located on the second escort: a temperature sensor, held by the red guard, detects you if you stay stationary. The other sensor is the sound sensor, held by the blue guard, which will go off if we don't move quietly. The guards never check both of them at the same time, so basically, what we have to do is _run _if the red guard is checking his sensor and _wait _if the blue guard is checking his below us.

We jump from the second escort car on top of the president's car, where we can move freely since the guy doesn't like the company of guards and will be alone below. Afterwards, we have to uncouple the first escort car carefully before the first switch point, then have our 'dummy' car and 'base' car move in.

I quote, from Rinoa: "After the car is uncoupled... We'll have the 'dummy car' and our 'base' move in. At this point, our train and their train will be linked and be moving together." Easy so far, right? Right.

Following this we start uncoupling the second escort car, then escape with the president's car and our base.

"If all goes well, we should be able to escape with the 'president's car'." We look back to Rinoa after she finishes explaining. "After that, we'll return to our base and prepare to confront Deling. We have exactly 5 minutes to complete the described procedures. If we fail, our train will collide with theirs at the switch point and it'll be all over. Don't forget that."

Zell frowns. "Five minutes...? You sure that's enough?"

Zone nods. "According to the simulation that we ran, it should take only 3 minutes to complete the operation. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?" …I guess.

"Of course! Too easy!" Squall doesn't say anything after Selphie's outburst, so our employers move onto the next stage of matter.

"To uncouple the cars from a moving train, we'll have to tamper with the control system of it. Squall," He turns at the mention of his name coming from Rinoa's lips. "I'll be relying the codes to you while you slide down the side of the train towards the bottom of it, where the control is located. It will have four buttons corresponding with four numbers. You'll have five seconds to enter them until they change and the ones I give you become invalid. If either you, Zell, Kira or Selphie notice a guard coming to check, you must slide back up immediately! Understood, everyone?"

All of us nod, still checking over the proto-type version of the trains. "Say…" Selphie suddenly remarks, peering closer towards the cars. "By the way...this model's nice but the president's car looks kinda shabby. ...Why is that?"

Watts suddenly laughs and comes over to looks at it with us. "Yeah, Rinoa made it. That's why. We bought everything else at the gift store."

Zell taps his chin and frowns. "Oh... I thought some kid made it. The paint job sucks, too."

Rinoa crosses her arms and pouts once hearing our conversation. "Oh, shut up! I made it look like that on purpose. It represents my hatred towards Deling."

Our blond SeeD member raises an eyebrow at that. "Hatred, eh...? Yeah...right."

"It's one of the...ugliest things that I've ever seen in my life. You must really hate him." I say to her, and all of us three burst into laughter in good humor.

"Enough about my model, all right!" Rinoa whines and we stop, though we're still grinning widely. "It's time to decide the parties for this."

Watts runs over to one of the corners, furiously waving his hands in front of him. "Gathering information is my specialty, sir!" He squeaks, and we turn our sights on Zone, who crouches down holding his stomach in fake-pain.

"Owowowowow, my stomach!" He moans and Rinoa sighs.

"All right, then!" Clapping her hands for our attention, she pauses for a few seconds before nodding. "Squall, as I said, you will be inputting the codes. Zell and Selphie, you'll be on the look-out for guards. Kira, you'll be helping me relay the cords and hold Squall up."

I blink at her and raise my arms to look at them in slight distaste. Zell bursts into laughter, understanding where I'm going. "I doubt she has any upper-body strength!" He chortles and I scowl at him, bringing one of my fists onto his head.

"Shuddup!" I cry and cross my arms back across my chest. "I am very adept at sword-wielding, thank you very much!" Selphie and Rinoa giggle at our display before Rinoa smiles cheerily.

"All right then! Let's get this show on the road! Talk to Watts when you're ready."

All of us nod and hurry off to check over our Junctions and re-equip any Guardian Forces we may have taken off. In this process I find that Selphie has still kept Siren, Squall has Quetzacoatl while Ifrit is being lent out to Zell until we get our next GFs.

"Brothers?" Diablos replies after I comment to them about our future companions. "I've heard of them. Quite a rowdy two-some bunch."

Shiva gives an un-lady like snort before smiling broadly. "They'll be perfect for him, then!"

Giggling with her, I finish my preparations and head outside with my group, where we meet up with Watts. He grins at us blindingly.

"You guys ready?" He asks, going on for a few more minutes about the 'fake president' they had made. We've no wish to see it so we say that yes, we have seen it, and that yes, we are ready to go probably to our deaths by train if all goes wrong. But those cynical thoughts aside, on we go!

Chuga-chuga-chu-chu!

* * *

Oh yes; almost forgot to mention. I have some art I've drawn of Kira and Eriol lying around, so check my profile once in a while where I'll be posting the links up at.

Don't forget to review! Until next time.


	12. Lost

_**Disclaimer:**__ Final Fantasy VIII, its characters, plot, and content don't belong to me. _

Abnormally short chapter, even after all these days of not updating…-sighs- Forgive me. I've been rather busy, but this should pick up its pace once school begins, so my new classroom environment can give me inspirational flow. –snorts-

**Chapter Twelve  
**Lost

_Wobble._

Take a step.

_Wobble. Wobble._

Take another step. I mean, it's not like we're on a train speeding at Hyne-knows-what-speed/an hour; noo. And it's not like I can literally see my life flashing by me because the damned wind is stinging my eyes and I think I am about to cry _right now_.

_Wobblewobblewobblewobble._

Uagh… I think I'm going to be sick.

"Kira? Are you okay back there?"

Mommy, I can see the light… it's approaching reallllyyy fast, heading straight for me…just like this goddamned train…ooh, it has a nice jacket.

"…Squall? …Yes, I'm fine."

The light is frowning at me, looking as if it is deep in thought over some sort of matter. Are you an angel?

"No, Kira, I am not an angel. Are you sure you're alright? We have to get on with the mission."

I shake myself out of the hazy stupor, smile sheepishly at Squall as he leans over me (he has to, sotra, unless he wants to get blown off by the wind) and rush past him and jump over to the second compartment where Rinoa is looking in our direction curiously but shrugs it off as we continue – all the while ignoring all the voices in my head warning that something bad is going to happen – to me, nontheless.

A fog settles over my mind again; I can no longer hear the worried mutterings of Shiva and Diablos, instead finding myself watching blankly as Rinoa, Squall and I work on un-coupling the wagons with the help of Selphie and Zell. It's weird, watching not through _your eyes _but with the eyes of the world – I feel as if I am the sky rushing overhead, the grass crinkling underneath the aftershock gale of the speeding train, even the daisies blooming cheerily without a care to the side, rustling from side to side once in a while.

I can't feel anything either…not the stinging, not the rope burns on my hands, not my cloak billowing to the side and into Rinoa's face; her voice goes partially ignored by me because _I feel like I just don't freaking care _but I move it in-between my legs anyways to keep it from distracting us.

I'm not human, I realize. It's strangely familiar realization, as if I heard someone say it to me before. _"Project 013 competed successfully,"_ they echo in my mind emotionlessly. _"Project 013 shall be available for testing in four days. Tracking devices implanted to keep sure of its movements."_

A man in a white lab coat is standing in front of me, hair in a buzz cut and glasses perched on his slightly crooked nose, clipboard in hand _and I can see bodies floating in simulators all the way behind him to the back wall of the large room._

Funny…I feel cold. Like there's no blood pumping through my veins to keep my body's warmth up to standard.

_Snap out of it._

I jump just in time after my companions, coughing and covering my mouth to keep the gathered-up dust out of my lungs. Apparently we've managed to complete the mission – woah, I actually took part in it? – and Rinoa's speaking about confronting the President, who's supposedly right behind this door beside me.

"Alright!" She cries, her voice down to a whisper as to not alert the man – and eyes us excitedly. "You guys, tell me when you're ready; I'll be doing some serious negotiations with the President, so…" She winks and giggles coyly. "Be ready, just in case."

I smile and nod, but it's quickly turned into a frown as a sense of foreboding collects in the pit of my stomach. "Squall?" He's in the midst of conversing with his Guardians, most likely, going over his spelled equipment and such, so he turns to me with the corners of his mouth turned downwards slightly.

"Yes?" He questions coldly and I shift from one foot to the other because the feeling is _not going away and he's looking at me like I'm not even there. _Really, what in Hyne's name is wrong with me?

"Is it alright if I sit this one thing out?" I ask quietly, not wishing for our other companions to overhear _—_ too many questions would ensure, knowing them.

Squall remains impassive, so to improvise, I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"Uh, female things. _Once a month things._" Really, if he didn't understand the implication of that one, then he is not as smart as I believed him to be.

One of the brunette's eyes twitch and he goes rigid…something that I believe that a large population of males do when hearing this certain mention. Sighing, Squall brings a hand to his forehead in his _I'm-brooding-leave-me-alone-RAWR _fashion and closes his eyes.

"Alright," he finally agrees reluctantly, peering at me suspiciously after a few moments of speculation. "Watts and Zone should be somewhere around here… just, wait for us there when we're done."

I nod enthusiastically and beam up thankfully at him, which he ignores and opts to gather up Zell and Selphie before sliding open the door and heading through to the lavish room where the fake President is while I skip off out one of the doors and into a small bedroom.

I'm out like a light the second the door shuts close behind me.

_mommy, what are you working on? daddy won't tell me and said to go ask you.  
i'm sorry sweetie, but it's nothing of importance. why don't you head outside and play with your friends?_

_daddy, who's that weird man? he scares me…  
…he's no one you should worry about, dear. how about heading to that ice-cream shop you like for some dessert?_

_i'm worried about her, truthfully. she hasn't been eating properly for the past few days – a child her age needs all the nutrients she can get.  
might it be connected to the, ah, "accident" that happened? children tend to pick up on these things after a few days…_

_his brainwaves seem to be normal; why, he just might be our first succeeded experiment!  
i congratulate you, professor liring, you seem to have outdone yourself this time! with his help…just think of all the possibilities!_

_m__**o**__mmy, __**mo**__mmy, __**why is everything**__ so __blue?__ he can breath, right?  
—oh, my! sweetie, get away from there!  
__**mommy? what's wrong? did i do something bad?**_

_projectprojectporject__013__heshallbecodenamed—_

**Is this how he felt?**

"Hello, Kira."

He cocks his head to the side, hair brushing his ears gently, glasses glinting oddly malevolent in the dim light this room provides – there are no windows for me to see him fully, and I can't see his eyes at all.

I stumble a few steps as I weakly get up from my fallen position on the floor and examine him before me, barely reaching my shoulder. All he does is just stare stare _stare _at me until I can't take it anymore.

"Do you need something?" I finally snap tensely, crossing my arms over my chest in a protective manner and tapping my foot impatiently on the floor.

His lips slide into a large, deceiving smile as he chuckles, and I freeze as _something _dances in Eriol's eyes when I manage to get a glimpse of them.

"Oh, just nothing. Merely a few choice memories of yours."


	13. Numb

_**Disclaimer:**__ Final Fantasy VIII, its characters, plot, and content don't belong to me. _

Unlucky thirteen, hm? We'll see about that.

**Chapter Thirteen  
**Numb

I stumble as far backwards as I can at his strange words; my back hits the cold metal door hard, and I feel my body quiver from the impact. _Memories? Memories? Memories?_

_MemoriesMemoriesMemories__**Memories**_

The words chant themselves, out of my control, inside my mind as they grow in pitch and I can't hear Shiva or Diablos anymore and they can't hear me either because this strange _boy _in front of me has all of the control.

"What do you mean?" I manage to grind out, my eyes wide in fright and suspicion and even curiosity. I think to myself, as I observe him closely: _he seems sad. Regretful._ But no. If he really were, then he wouldn't be doing this, scaring me like this, _deceiving _me like this. I've known him for a few years now, right? I know Eriol; he's my only link to my real world.

He wouldn't do this. He can't. He just plain can't.

"There are…things," Eriol starts slowly, eyes glazed over yet still focused on me in a piercing stare that goes all the way down to the deepest pieces of my soul. "Things I believe you shouldn't have seen. Ever again."

_'m__**o**__mmy, __**mo**__mmy, __**why is everything**__ so __blue?__ he can breath, right?  
—oh, my! sweetie, get away from there!  
__**mommy? what's wrong? did i do something bad?'**_

I bite my bottom lip, hard, hard enough to draw blood and it tastes normal in my mouth with its metal tinge but my whole body and mind feel as if they are going numb.

'_ projectprojectporject__013__heshallbecodenamed—_'

"Is this how he felt?"

The words escape me, regardless of whether I want them to or not, and I can feel them floating, floating and lingering in the air between us, unbidden and unwanted and not going away. _Who's he? _My mind is running a thousand and one miles per second, and against my will I start to ponder the things I don't want to know about at all.

_Who's he? Who's them? Who's __**mommy**_

And Eriol is still staring, still watching and still observing me because that's all he's ever done – play games, watch the time go by and twist our words until they are fit for me to understand.

"…Why are you here?"

No, that's not what I meant to say and he knows it too because he's just so ever-knowing. _Why are you here? _are not the words I'm supposed to say in a situation like this; I'm supposed to stare at him, eyes wide and frightened and heart stopped because he says _he wants my memories_.

"I am here because they wanted me to be." His voice is always so calm, too, and I know that because I can now understand that he rarely puts feelings behind them. "I am here because _you _wanted me to be."

No, I didn't. I never did – I never wanted to meet you _(again)_ because you would ruin my peaceful illusions and put havoc in my life. And now it feels like my life is gone and I don't like that feeling because I never experienced it in the first place when I was back _home_.

"Do not take this the wrong way," he frowns, glasses flashing again like from an old horror movie I always hated watching because I could always imagine it happening to me. "I've no wish to do this either, but it has been my job for so many years now." He smiles coldly and emotionlessly. "It is routinely for me now, do you understand?"

There's something light pulsing in his right hand as he holds it out to me; it's pretty and bright and shiny and sparkly. It's calling to me, fascinating and at the same time enchanting me just like it's done every time he held it out to me in my dreams in the darkness and the night.

And as I take it, because it bids me to, I can hear some_thing_ crying for me to let go, but I don't _(can't) _listen to it because it's not my voice and although it has called to me so many times before _(in the dark of the night in my dreams beneath the stars) _it's betrayed me just as many times and my trust for it has been _severed and cut and just plain and simply destroyed_.

The feeling of falling is not unfamiliar to me; I've done it many times now, before this moment. It's weird, because you can see little things and details you never noticed before because sometimes it feels like it'll be the last time for you to see light ever again.

And as I fall, fall again for not the last time in my life, I still think that the boy – the little boy who barely reaches my shoulder with the black hair and strange glinting glasses and empty eyes – seems sad and regretful and his words are a well-practiced speech for when I can finally hear him.

I know this and feel this because whenever he speaks to me in my dorm room and we argue and disagree there's something familiar in his strange eyes but now there's nothing but empty and dark pits in its place.

And it hurts. It hurts a lot.

---

---

Yelling and grumbling is what I can hear when I open my eyes, staring up at the whirling fan of the small and cramped train compartment. I can make out the yellow blob that is Selphie leaning against something and the bouncing shape that is Zell, glaring at something in black that I know for sure is Squall.

"I can't believe we fell for it!" And I know for sure that that irritated voice coming from the person in blue there is Rinoa.

So that means they're back.

I sit up with a groan, expecting pains like the ones that usually come whenever I wake up in the infirmary with Dr. Kadowaki muttering to herself about ignorant cadets, but to my relieved surprise none comes. Instead, I feel strangely light and my heart feels like it'll burst out off my chest and go do the conga line with an alligator in a top hat.

I like this feeling. It's nice. Shiva and Diablos agree with me because they laugh and say they can feel it too.

"Kira!"

I have to admit: I'm confused as to why everyone is now staring at me. Selphie rushes over to me with a large grin on her face and takes my hands in hers before bouncing like she always does.

"I'm so glad you're alright!" She exclaims and Zell nods from behind her, staring at me in clouded suspicion. I laugh with Selphie because I'm still confused but it feels nice to have friends worry about you sometimes.

"Are you fine now?"

Squall is the one now speaking, so I turn my head to him and grin, nodding an affirmative. Everything is slowly fading away, so I can remember perfectly well that I went into unconsciousness because my head suddenly felt tired and I guess they couldn't wake me up.

The attention is turned away from me, to my relief, when Watts bursts into the room yelling on the top of his lungs.

"New info, sir!" He cries, tripping on a nonexistent notch before standing up again and rushing over to us like nothing happened. "I found out the real reason why the president is here – he's going to the TV Station! Security's super tight, sir!"

It's quiet for a moment and I blink; "The Station?" I ask, wanting to get back in the loop and guessing the president we abducted was a fake – no, I can remember this. "Why here, in Timber? Can't they just do broadcasts from Galbadia?" But I have to say it because they all think I've lived here my whole life.

Selphie settles herself on the small couch beside me and frowns, brining a hand to her chin in thought. "Do you think the communication tower in Dollet has anything to do with this?"

"What's that?" Asks Zone and I finally notice him standing in the doorway, watching us watching him.

Squall, as our leader, takes up the initiative. "Dollet has a tower that allows it to transmit and receive radio waves. It's been reported that it was abandoned for a long time before the Galbadian army got it up and running yesterday."

Zone slaps a fist into the palm of his hand and his eyes light up brightly. "Oh! I get it!" He says, grinning. "Timber has the only TV Station that can handle broadcasts over the air! Other stations use HD cables that only support online broadcasting."

"So…what's that supposed to mean?" Rinoa asks and I kinda agree with her until Diablos and Shiva explain what's going on to me.

"So if they want to broadcast images to other regions, why is the president himself doing this? What does he want to say that the whole world has to see?" Everyone turns towards me with various looks on their faces, mostly surprise, and I raise an eyebrow at them.

"Everybody!" The attention is now on Selphie beside me. "Love! And Peace!"

…

It's silent as we stare at her for a few moments before Zell takes a small step backwards and Squall's eyes return to their normal size.

"Anyways," Zone interrupts and brings our attention back to him after a cough, "If I remember correctly, radio waves haven't been used in 17 years. Why now?'

The man brings up a good point, I agree.

Rinoa suddenly sighs longingly. "It's really been that long? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the first broadcast was of Timber's independence!?" Her eyes suddenly light up and it feels like little hearts are going to just start floating around her and take her away to HappyLand.

But I have to disagree with her – somehow, I doubt that would happen. Well, I actually know, but whatever.

Unfortunately, Zone doesn't seem to agree with me. "Hey! That might be possible!"

"Give us a minute!" Rinoa cries as the three Owls huddle on the floor, whispering amongst each other. I feel my eye twitch at the childish act and decide to zone out, staring back at the fan above me.

Round and round it goes… round and round it goes… round and round it goes…

"Until Timber's independence!?"

Zell's cry brings me back to the real word and I sit back up to see the three gaping at the paper held in a cheeky Rinoa's hands.

"That is so vague!" Selphie cries, peering at it closer in an attempt to find a mistake. Rinoa shrugs and rolls it backs up.

"Hey," she starts, giving us – I've walked over to join them – a small glare. "You're paid professionals. No complaining!" Her mood does a 360 and she's happy and cheery again, jumping up and looking as if she was just electrocuted. "Okay, let's decide on the parties!"

Zone and Watts conveniently leave with their excuses, so that leaves us SeeDs – and Rinoa. I can hear Squall groaning to himself and muttering some words before snapping his head back up and doing a quick sweep of our odd group.

"Zell, Kira, you're coming with. Rinoa, Selphie, please stay behind for this." I nod and snap in a small salute because I feel so and follow Squall out the door, where another electrocuted person is bouncing around on the balls of his feet.

"The TV Station, sir!?" Watts exclaims upon seeing us emerge from the small conference room. "It's quite close if you take one of the trains… but unfortunately, they're all down right now!' …Okay, what was the point of telling us that? "But don't worry, sir!!" Watts retaliates, sliding open the train door for us. "I'm sure there's someone in town who knows how to get there!"

We get off just as the train pulls to a stop back at the city entrance, and Watts exits with us. "Say!" he suddenly cries and I would jump in surprise but I'm supposed to be a _paid professional_. "I think I remember: The TV Station is located behind the newspaper building, Timber Maniacs! If you head in that direction, sir, I'm sure you'll find the station!"

We stare at the direction he pointed us to then leave, ignoring the yelling of Watts and Zone behind us as the train takes back off – after dropping off Rinoa and Selphie – and head deeper into the quiet and shabby city.

And I'm still happy because my mind and heart have never felt this nice and empty of my worries before.

* * *

A/N: Okay. Gotta go to bed now. School tomorrow. : ( Review please. 


	14. REWRITE UP!

_**New Update!**_

I've posted my rewrite, titled **_Apocalypse, Please_** under this account, so go check it out. ; ) This will still be up, though._**  
**_


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